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May 02, 2024
 

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John L. Tran
For John L. Tran's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 19, 2018
Bridget Riley: The art world's illusionist
A very concise review of the Bridget Riley exhibition at the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, would be this: Barring those who are prone to motion sickness, go and see it. This applies equally to predisposed art buffs who already know and appreciate her work, and to those who haven't heard of her, for whom wordy adjective-laden praise will possibly do more harm than good.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 5, 2018
'Paddington Bear' exhibition tells the story of the most English of Peruvian bears
Ten years after the HMT Empire Windrush brought Britain's first major influx of West Indian immigrants to the United Kingdom, and 10 years before Conservative MP Enoch Powell made his famously inflammatory speech predicting "rivers of blood" if Britain allowed mass migration, a fictional Peruvian orphan arrived in London with a tag hanging round his neck that said: "Please look after this bear. Thank you."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 22, 2018
Tomoo Gokita: Exposing the underbelly of pop culture
Tomoo Gokita's deformations of his subjects are surrealistic with a precision mix of austere black, white and grays, low-brow culture imagery, kookiness and powerfully evocative draftsmanship.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 20, 2018
Roppongi Art Night's giant splash of color
Roppongi Art Night's ninth iteration promises to be a vibrant collection of large-scale works and performances, including those by Teppei Kanueji, Ujino and Kengo Kito.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 15, 2018
Noritaka Minami's city of broken dreams
Noritaka Minami's aerial photographs of the failed urban project of California City in the Mojave Desert are quietly devastating. Purposefully using high-ISO film that shows grain even at low enlargement, his images of a planned city — mostly a network of uninhabited roads — are pale planes of dots and lines
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 1, 2018
The Spanish Golden Age of earthy realism
'Velazquez and the Celebration of Painting: The Golden Age in the Museo Del Prado' celebrates 150 years of Japan-Spain diplomatic relations with an exploration of the authority of vision and humanity of the divine.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 27, 2018
Michiko Kon: Mistress of the dark
The abominable beauty of Michiko Kon's work is back.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 20, 2018
Koga: A pithy affair with the avant-garde
There are two good reasons to see the exhibition on the short-lived photography magazine Koga, now on at the Tokyo Photographic Art (TOP) Museum. One is that it is full of powerful images that will linger in the memory despite their relative simplicity. The other is that, as the story of art continues to develop beyond the confines of paintings and sculptures by dead white men, the inventiveness and distinct character of the avant-garde photography in Koga deserves greater exposure for what it can tell us about Japanese visual culture of the 1930s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2018
Time to welcome our robot overlords?
"Hello World — For the Post-Human Age" at Art Tower Mito looks at developments in art in the context of digital technology and artificial intelligence. It starts with a lightly comedic farce, in the form of Cecile B. Evans' 2016 multimedia installation "Sprung a Leak." This three-act work, partly inspired by Shakespeare's "The Two Noble Kinsmen," tells an elliptical and intentionally glitchy tale of human users' distress when Liberty, their favorite animated beauty blogger, disappears and how a solution is patched together by well-meaning robots.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2018
The best pick and mix of modern art
The current exhibition at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art could be considered a retrospective of Toshio Hara's career as a collector. Surprisingly, given that the museum was founded in 1979, it's the first time that the director and president has personally curated a show there, and the title is the pretty no-nonsense: "My Favorites: Toshio Hara Selects from the Permanent Collection."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 6, 2018
Roni Horn: Ways to present the self
While visiting the Rathole Gallery, a confident 3 year-old told me that his favorite work in the current exhibition, Roni Horn’s “The Selected Gifts,” was a picture of meatballs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 20, 2018
Exploring war through woodblock prints
Sensu014d-e, literally 'war pictures,' are a particularly dramatic form of Japanese woodblock print that emerged as a style of reportage during the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, and went on to become a widespread and popular way of disseminating patriotic imagery during the First Sino and Russo-Japanese wars. The 2017 catalog 'Flash of Light, Fog of War' features 75 of these images.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 16, 2018
The cosmic talents of Noriyoshi Ohrai
It must have been nonstop monsters, warships, hunks and epic boobage for much of Noriyoshi Ohrai's life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 9, 2018
The elaboration of decoration as art
In the setting of what is probably Tokyo's most stylishly decorated art museum, curator Kasumi Yamaki explains the theme of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum's latest exhibition "Decoration Never Dies, Anyway."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 12, 2017
Asia in the wings of Japan's art scene
"Tis the season to be jolly ... circumspect. As regards art, despite suggestions from some art professionals that biennials and other recurring art festivals are an exhausted format, 2017 offered up an embarrassment of riches, some more embarrassing than others as it turned out.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 12, 2017
Bohemia along the Sumida: In search of cultural capital
On paper, the Japanese government supports the arts, which are considered important vehicles for promoting Japanese culture globally, enhancing the country's image as a tourist destination and stimulating declining regional economies. But, where does the content for Japan's increasing number of art festivals actually come from? There are no national mechanisms for supporting individual artists, with funding programs primarily aimed at institutions and community initiatives.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 19, 2017
1968: The year Japan truly raised its voice
During a recent conversation with a student in his sixth year at a university renowned to be an incubator for Japanese politicians, 23-year-old Atsugi Fukuhara tells me that he wants to stay a student forever.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 7, 2017
Be in the right frame of mind for Roger Ballen
In one of Roger Ballen's most well-known images, a picture of F. de Bruin of the Orange Free State prison service, the elderly sergeant looks out at us with the forlorn look of a tired beagle, not at all the face of an enforcer of white supremacy. The subject's belt is slack, his uniform slightly too big for his small frame, with the stitching coming apart on the lapel.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 17, 2017
Koganecho: An old site in a new light
Koganecho Bazaar 2017's “Double Facade: Multiple Ways to Encounter the Other” show is a bit of a mess.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 3, 2017
In the right light, every detail counts
At the tail end of an unexpectedly long conversation, the last question I ask photographer Keizo Kitajima is why it's important for him to have even lighting across the image. The photographs he is showing at the Photographers' Gallery in Shinjuku are part of his long-running "Untitled Records" series of unpopulated urban and semi-rural landscapes. As the gallery is a small space, there are only a handful of exhibits, but the precision with which they have been made is mesmeric.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
A peek inside the brains of ‘super-agers’
For a little more than a decade, scientists have been studying a subset of people they call "super-agers.” These individuals are age 80 and older, but they have the memory ability of a person 20 to 30 years younger.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there
Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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