Held annually in Tokyo since 2018, the aptly named WAVE ebbs and flows with each new iteration, a variable barometer of Japan’s ever evolving graphic art climate. Exhibited at Japan House Los Angeles in 2021 and later at Japan House São Paulo in 2022, the group show at Japan House London has acquired a handful of new artists, totalling 60 practitioners spanning various generations and genres.
The exhibition opened its doors Thursday in the remarkably airy subterranean gallery of London’s Japanese Cultural Centre, whose three floors include a restaurant and retail space. From the bustling high street, passersby can catch a glimpse of the enormous graphic eye, an exhibition motif chosen by co-curator Takahashi Kintarō to underscore the focus on illustrative visual forms of representation and the power of the viewer’s eye.
While the collection and layout is curated individually at each House, the lineup is comprised of a core group of artists and the initiative remains the same: to showcase the dynamic resurgence of Japanese print media and its contemporary trajectory.
While global audiences are familiar with manga, the exhibition extends well beyond this particular category to encapsulate a diverse array of graphic disciplines; including book art, animation, commercial graphics, murals, and block print. Refreshingly curated, the review offers an accessible perspective on underrepresented forms of representation that allow Japanese graphic aesthetics to be examined without being tokenised.
A central theme to the evolution of Japanese graphic art is the conceptual temperament of Heta-Uma (bad but good), an aesthetic movement that subverted the overly-polished nature of conventionally classic illustration. Otherwise understood as ugly-beautiful, Heta-Uma prompted a reevaluation of where artistry, value, and intrigue derive. The liberalising phenomenon first emerged in the late 1970s and carried into the 1980s, carrying with it a cultural sea change reflected in the deformation of traditional aesthetics of value that paralleled contemporary western art movements of the time, exchanging the ideal for the real.
Also originating with manga, Heta-Uma has experienced its own tidal movements. When it came time to name the exhibition, Hiro Sugiyama – who co-curated the exhibition with Kintarō – harps back to the early days of Heta-Uma, recalling that “there was a very big visual undulation happening in the society. In 2000 it was overtaken by the popularity of animation, which put an end to the Heta-Uma trend, but I personally feel the big wave coming back. I would love to see the Heta-Uma that I saw in the 1980s again. With that wishful thought, I decided to name the exhibition.”
Heta-Uma pioneer Yumura Teruhiko prompted an active rejection of the Japanese art establishment. At the time his work was considered “ugly” by contemporaries, but served as a formative cornerstone. It’s no wonder Heta-Uma found a place to land, seeing as the Japanese theory of wabi-sabi aesthetics – the embrace of transience and imperfection – dates back to the 16th century and continues to be a pilar of art and design.
The unhindered nature of Heta-Uma presents an arresting contrast to the otherwise longstanding precision ubiquitous to Japanese society and craft. These characteristics are also associated with Japan’s position as a global economic powerhouse, however the question remains how much these values have to do with culture and how much with industrialisation. Before the rise of Heta-Uma, print media in Japan was heavily reliant on commerce: while the genre was still in its naiscence, artists had few domestic opportunities outside of advertising, publishing, and fashion. The flood of Heta-Uma enabled a cross disciplinary confluence of illustration and commercial iconography that enabled the recognition of what is now understood as graphic art.
As a cultural centre and educational institution open free to the public, the mission of Japan House is both to convey traditional Japanese culture but also to situate it within the ever-evolving contemporary landscape. While each Japan House hosts unique presentations, some exhibitions – like WAVE – travel from house to house. London is the third and final iteration of WAVE at Japan’s international cultural centres.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Japan House London will host a number of coinciding events; including talks and tours with the exhibition’s artists, curators, and organisers.
WAVE is on view at Japan House London through 22 October.
101-111 Kensington High St
London W8 5SA
more information here
