Forest Goblin Teatime

Takato Yamamoto ~ “Heisei Esthiticism”

Japanese artist Takato Yamamoto’s self described “Heisei Esthiticism” style casts figures reminiscent of the work of Victorian pornographer Franz von Bayros in their creative positioning and playful use of space within their scenarios.  As with a lot of Japanese art, there is a blatant sexual and often sadistic undertone that sees his subjects restrained, wounded, gagged and bound yet unblemished, posed and beautiful.

His recurring use of objects like skulls and skeletons, eyeballs and severed heads as ornaments in fabulously detailed and intricately opulent and patterned backgrounds reveal a fascination with sex and violence as beautiful aesthetic phenomena rather than topics of morality and he depicts these themes as subjects of sophisticated titillation. These are not problematic, shallow cartoons of sinister pornography. They are staggering and complex visual records of voyeuristic and psychological fascination drawn from an eclectic range of culturally significant sources.