As I introspected myself, I figured out that they were the feelings of “conquest and submission, domination and violation” inside of me. The champagne which should be free and bohemian, which appears like a noble lady, had been violated and completely under control… That was the source of indescribable pleasure.
Every human being has a fundamental desire to conquer and make others submit, as well as to dominate and violate others. No matter how mild-natured, or how weak a person appears to be, he/she possesses more or less the fundamental desire to dominate/conquer.
The first hero, King Nimrod, who built the “Tower of Babel” in the Old Testament, oppressed slaves and rebelled against God, but was said to have been a slave himself before. The first hero (the ruler) appeared in the Bible was originally the slave (the ruled).
In addition, “bullies” and “bullied” exist in any society. However, there is also a hierarchy among the bullied. Even in a group of oppressed people, there are oppressing ones and oppressed ones. It is well known that many of the bullies have the experience of being bullied.
This type of desire is fundamental to humans. The tied-up champagne evoked the fundamental and animalistic desires of the human inside of me.
However, in everyday life, there is no way one can act upon the desire to conquer others to submit, or dominate others to violate. Needless to say, doing such things would cause disturbances, and it is antisocial as well.
As it turned out, that is what the Japanese traditional skill of “Bondage (SHIBARI)” has embodied. As one unravels the history of Japanese art culture, one will see many bondage works painted beautifully and vividly in the Ukiyo-e paintings from the Edo period.
One important factor here is that this tying up of someone else to conquer, to make submit, to rule and to violate is only temporary. Once the ropes are untied, everyone returns to the original state without even a scratch. The actualization of this petit bourgeois desire was “Bondage (SHIBARI).” Furthermore, it was something to allow a person to feel even the modest liberation of human soul.
“Bondage (SHIBARI)” advances to the second phase …
“Bondage (SHIBARI)” started as just for fun; it was a modest pleasure to fulfill the fundamental desire that human beings have.
Then a question arose to me. Does looking at these tied-up works give one an uplifting feeling in mind, and even a sense of being freed? So I asked the bondager to tie up various things.
As a result, a truly mysterious phenomenon has occurred.
“Bondage (SHIBARI)” is just a light prank after all. However, I felt sparkling in it. The sparkle that exists in what appears to be just a prank at a glance… what would that be? I pondered on it and came to a conclusion.
“Isn’t it art!?” was what came to my mind.
Since so many books have been written about it and legitimate analyses have been done, I do not intend to argue about it here, but I am sure that the works by Duchamp, Basquiat, and Pollock must look like “pranks” in the eyes of ordinary people. Yet they are at the remarkable height of art.
What in the world is the true nature of the artistic excitement in the prank?
To figure it out, I came up with this idea to try out:
Taking the “Bondage (Shibari)” that began from the prank, and using a simple poll to quantitatively measure the feeling, that is, “artistic sparkle in prank”.
Specifically, I will ask people to take a look at my bondage works, and then have them evaluate their impression by selecting one of four choices:
・Quite artistic
・Maybe a bit artsy…?
・No specific feeling
・Feel like prank
I would like “general public, art college students, and art curators” in “Japan, Paris, and NY” to participate in the poll, and then tally their votes. Then I will take the result to get to the core of “the true nature of the artistic sparkle in the prank”.
At the same time, I would also like to invite requests, such as “Please try tying up something like this! Can it create some artistic spark…!?”, implement the idea and share the result as well.