Genpei Akasegawa
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Genpei Akasegawa (赤瀬川 原平 Akasegawa Genpei?) is a pseudonym of Japanese conceptual artist Katsuhiko Akasegawa (赤瀬川 克彦 Akasegawa Katsuhiko?) (born 1937). He used another pen name Katsuhiko Otsuji (尾辻 克彦 Otsuji Katsuhiko?) for novels.
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[edit] History
During the 1960s, he became involved within the Neo-Dada movement. He formed the Hi-Red Center with Jiro Takamatsu and Natsuyuki Nakanishi during this time, which was a group of artists that presented their works as a collective in Japan; they performed happenings within the Hi-Red Center. Genpei was also associated with avant-garde.
In 1980s he came up with an idea of Hyper-Art (chōgeijutsu), an otherwise ordinary street object that happen to look like a conceptual art. He called such things Thomason.
He (as Katsuhiko Otsuji) received Akutagawa Prize in 1981 for his short story, Chichi ga kieta.
[edit] "Thousand-Yen Bill Incident"
In January 1963, Genpei Akasegawa sent out invitations to a solo exhibition at a gallery in Tokyo. The announcement was delivered to several close friends in a cash envelope that was mailed through the postal service [1]. The announcement itself was a 1,000 yen note reproduced in monochromatic colors on the front, with relevant information regarding the exhibit on the back. He produced four more during the next year.
In January 1964, his 1,000 yen note partial reproductions became noticed by the police and he was indicted on currency imitation stemming from the 1894 Law Controlling the Imitation of Currency and Securities [2]. The language of the law was quite vague, prohibiting any manufacture or sale of objects with an exterior front that may “be confused for currency or securities.” In August of 1966, he went on trial and was dubbed the "Thousand-Yen Bill Incident." In June 1967, he was found guilty, but Genpei appealed twice but the decision was upheld in 1970.
[edit] References
- ^ Tomii, Reiko. "Guilty Verdict: Akasegawa Genpei and the 1000-Yen-Note Trial." 1997. Session 179: A Public Passionately Concerned with Itself: Japan's Public Sphere in the 1960s. 6 Nov. 2006 [1].
- ^ Marotti, William A. "Simulacra and subversion in the everyday: Akasegawa Genpei's 1000-yen copy, critical art, and the State." Postcolonial Studies: Culture, Politics, Economy 4.2 (July 2001): 211-239.
[edit] Bibliography
- 『超芸術トマソン』 (Chōgeijutsu Tomason), Byakuya shobō, 1985. Reissue: Chikuma bunko, 1987, ISBN 4-480-02189-2.
- 『東京ミキサー計画』 (Tōkyō mikisā keikaku), PARCO, 1984. Reissue: Chikuma bunko, 1994, ISBN 4-480-02935-4.
