Chu Enoki’s first public performance was a Naked Happening in 1970 which involved him walking through the middle of a main street in Tokyo with the Expo ‘70 logo sunburned onto his bare chest, by way of protesting the huge heavily branded event that was taking place in Japan at the time.
A performance work based on the simple idea of going about his everyday live for four years with one side of his head and body entirely removed of hair, Shaving Half of My Hair took place between 1977 and 1981. Around the same time he started In Everyday Life Multi, whereby he converted his private home into a public domain, inviting anyone to come and see his art and his domestic life; and for his Bar Rose Chu work in 1979 he transformed a gallery space into an intimate bar where he interacted with guests as a moustached hostess in drag.
Such public interventions as these sought to shake up the divides between public and private spaces, art and the every day, spectatorship and participation. In more recent years the artist has moved away from body and performance based works towards sculpture and instillation that utilise found objects and materials including weaponry, ammunition and industrial detritus. His RPM-1200, pictured below, saw a sci-fi city skyline emerge out of highly polished junk metal and old drill bits.
For more on Chu Enoki see his website or get hold of the book Everyday Life/Art: Chu Enoki.
Rad! I saw this exhibition in Tokyo, it was like the Blade Runner city (which was based on Tokyo!)
Comment by grug — September 19, 2009 @ 5:33 pm