Sunday, January 14, 2007

EYE CANDY - Makoto Aida's Sweet Palette

One of my favorite Japanese pop-artists is a fellow named Makoto Aida, a brilliant and energetic talent with boundless creativity. Master of a score of expressive forms, Aida’s career output is multi-layered and has been refreshingly unpredictable. Born in Niigata in 1965, and educated at the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Aida has establishment credentials but also the heart of a subversive. In other words, he is a true Runagate. The most provocative of his images are copied widely on the Web, but they are a mere hint of his industry. Today, and in future Blogs, I will assemble and describe some of the best work of Makoto Aida. After having collected fragments of fact and image from more than twenty websites, I begin with work he did for a documentary film and the public display of bodyart (photo below) in 2004.
My full length report, with a photo portfolio appears on the main site - http://therunagatesclub.com/blog/



In August 2004 Stockhom, Sweden hosted a huge summer festival called "TOKYO STYLE IN STOCKHOLM 2004," which showcased a wide variety of Japanese traditional and popular culture streams. One of the many events was an exhibition by 37 of Japan’s largest Anime companies, and there was a film festival and even a COSPLAY contest. Makoto Aida attended with his lovely model Koe-chan (above). In 2004 Aida was experimenting with body painting, transferring a female Manga image onto a nude canvas. His fun design was debuted in a public park, dazzling an appreciative Stockholm audience. Further, the project inspired a Director to produce a documentary film called Hentai Land, which is now available on DVD.

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