[ Journals ] III - Yoshimoto Nara's Artworks

Nara first came to the fore of the art world during Japan’s Pop art movement in the 1990s. The subject matter of his sculptures and paintings is deceptively simple: most works depict one seemingly innocuous subject (often pastel-hued children and animals drawn with confident, cartoonish lines) with little or no background. But these children, who appear at first to be cute and even vulnerable, sometimes brandish weapons like knives and saws. Their wide eyes often hold accusatory looks that could be sleepy-eyed irritation at being awoken from a nap—or that could be undiluted expressions of hate..
Nara, however, does not see his weapon-wielding subjects as aggressors. "Look at them, they [the weapons] are so small, like toys. Do you think they could fight with those?" he says. "I don’t think so. Rather, I kind of see the children among other, bigger, bad people all around them, who are holding bigger knives…"
Nara’s own explanation of his work, then, casts us as the aggressors guilty of betraying and attacking childhood innocence. When cast in that light, Nara incriminates himself as well, for his art is above all based upon the perversion of otherwise innocent subjects.
Lauded by art critics and hipsters alike, Nara’s bizarrely intriguing works have gained him a cult following around the world.

Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitomo_Nara Wikipedia
http://www.nara-movie.jp/ MOVIE - Traveling with Yositomo Nara
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I. Summarize


II. Vocabulary words and phrases
i. new words/phrases
deceptively Adv. 迷惑地
depict V. 描畫; 雕出
innocuous Adj. 無害的
pastel-hued 粉蠟筆色調的; 柔和色調的
brandish V. 揮舞
accusatory Adj. 責問的;非難的
undiluted Adj. 純真的
wielding V. 揮舞
aggressor N. 侵略者
incriminate V. 暗示; 控告
hipsters N. 行家
bizarrely Adv. 奇形怪狀地
intriguing V. 激起…的好奇心

ii. useful / phrases
movement N. 活動; 動向
seemingly Adv. 表面上; 似乎是
irritation V. 激怒
light V. 點燃; 照亮
perversion N. 誤用
lauded V. 讚美
cult N. 迷信; 狂熱

III. The reason I chose this article
The first time I saw Nara’s art work was at my third grades of junior high. I like the girl he drew and I think she’s really cute. And I agreed his explanation about the weapons. If you think someone who hold a knife is evil, then you might be hurt by someone who looked like a good person. It’s true, at least I’ve met some.
And I like his painting very much. I haven’t seen the movie about his work, but I think I will buy the DVD as I start a part-time job this summer.