FUYUKO MATSUI: GLIMMERINGS FROM THE TOMB

Matsui with "The Observed One"

Back in the Zeroes, Fuyuko Matsui, along with one or two others (Kumi Machida, Hisashi Tenmyouya...) presented an interesting challenge to the slide of Japanese contemporary art into the sugary abyss of neotony, infantilism, and the "kawaii!!!" typified by the likes of Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, etc. Artistically talented, she also had the "media chops" -- charismatic, good-looking, and although a little shy at first she had an innate confidence and sense of mission. All this this made her a "contender," but alas she dropped the baton and is now, if I am brutally honest, reduced to a niche interest.

But now she is back, with a small but hard-hitting show entitled The Era of Dread at Nakajima Art in Ginza. This mixes some older works with some newer ones for sale, with the main focus being on an odd but strangely "dancey" painting The Observed One, which shows a female nude with a pained expression, a snake around her ankles, and a toad disturbingly close to her "modesty" (see above).

Also it is noticeable that her figures (almost always female) are more Western-looking in appearance.

I'm not sure how the show is being covered in the Japanese media and it's not that important for two reasons. One, the Japanese media is second to none at pigeonholing and trivializing artists, and for them Matsui will forever be the witchly beauty creating rather refined ghostly horror, like Scattered Deformities in the End (2007), which is not for sale and is included to bulk out the show.

Scattered Deformities in the End

What does it mean? "Something, something" about how it is to be a woman. I guess...

The second reason that it's not really that important what the local coverage is, is because Japanese art is only really taken seriously by the Japanese if it is taken seriously by foreigners first. Well, I did my bit, writing some relatively well-received articles on Matsui when she first came out, and helping to generate a flicker of wider interest, but that has mainly died down.

So what went wrong? It's hard to say. Matsui's work is disconcerting and may not sit comfortably on many a wall, but, more than this, she has effectively buried her own career. This happened in a rather odd way, when, a few years ago, she decided to dedicate the vast majority of her effort and talent to decorating a building that would mainly be used for funeral services and storing ashes, albeit a rather cool, futuristic one, built like an elevator car park. 

 Futuristic Buddhist temple

Needless to say, this would add certain difficulties to appreciating Matsui's work, and would they be truly appreciated in a setting that served as the BGM of death?

While the project seemed to inspire her, this move took her art much more out of circulation than it otherwise would be. It effectively crashed the "artistic meme coin" that she had successfully floated in 2012 when I covered her for CNN.

So, will the show at Nakajima Art change things? Probably not, it's too small for that. It's more a case of glimmerings from the tomb of an artistic career. There is nothing in the exhibition to break the mold of the relentless pigeonholing, and thus create a fresh wave of excitement.

But death is not always the end. By continuing to create in her own steady and organic way, one gets a sense of an artist who still believes in her original mission.

Matsui's mission has always been to doggedly follow an intuitive sense (rather than a conscious knowledge) of art's dark and possibly even sinister purposes.

Art, when all is said and done, is the occult.

It only has power, really, by invoking certain invisible, esoteric, and sometimes secret and forbidden rules. Sometimes these can be summed up as tricks of psychology. The element of ritual is also important. All these are present in Matsui's work; and it is these that give her work its core power. This is set off nicely by the "thelematic" darkness of the gallery.

While this exhibition is too small to exhume an artist who seemingly interred herself, it is nevertheless a welcome stirring in the dank detritus of the cemetery floor as Spring kicks into high gear.

Virtue Without Corruption

松井冬子「懼怖(おそれ)の時代」展　
Fuyuko MATSUI Solo Show "The Era of Dread"
14th March～3rd April, 11:00～18:30