In Ben Wheatley's recent film "A Field in England," a group of deserting soldiers fleeing the 17th-century English Civil War escape through a field of mushrooms, only to be captured by an alchemist and descend into a nightmare of both body and mind — all against the backdrop of the English countryside.
Such madness and melancholia of Brits are themes apparent in the latest group show at Tomio Koyama's 8/Art Gallery in Tokyo's Shibuya.
"Five British Artists" introduces five individuals who, along with a small band of others, have helped to shape the cultural landscape of Britain for the past 20 years, and continue to do so. The much-criticized group, many of whom were supported by businessman Charles Saatchi, rejected the tag of YBA (young British artists), which they acquired in the mid 1990s, and redefined the contemporary artist as either entrepreneurs, inventors or modern-day alchemists.