has abstract
| - Bontarō Dokuyama (毒山凡太朗, Dokuyama Bontarō, b. 1984) is a Tokyo-based Japanese contemporary artist who employs a wide range of methodologies and approaches in his body of work, including political activism, interviews, installation, and video. Dokuyama was deeply impacted by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear disaster that followed. Having worked as an architectural designer, he decided to start over as an artist after witnessing the destruction of his hometown in Fukushima prefecture. His works are primarily political. He regularly engages with places, people, and issues that have been obscured in contemporary Japanese society, revealing the memories and emotions of those who have been left out or forgotten in mainstream historical discourse. Dokuyama often incorporates satire and humor into his artworks as a method for reframing the realities of certain socio-political issues in order to stimulate audiences to reconsider their dependency on social mechanisms. Dokuyama has been active as an artist since 2014, and has engaged with various controversial political topics in his body of work, including nuclear displacement, 'comfort' women, Japan's colonization of Taiwan, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. His works are in the collections of the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and Mori Art Museum in Japan, and Kadist in Paris and San Francisco. In 2017, he was selected as a candidate for the 20th Taro Okamoto Award; and in 2018, he participated in the Art Action UK artist residency in London. (en)
|