10tonfunk LITE

Great event at the Asia Society as part of Asia Contemporary Art Week. Matsuyama had some great insights into his work (below)…

… but Shinohara-san stole the show. I also think he was even funnier in Japanese than in translation, as all the Japanese speakers in the audience were cracking up whenever he talked. Big props to dude. Nearly 80 and still committed to being avant-garde, even though it hasn’t brought him much in the way of his commercial success — one of the questions to him was fielded by his wife who prefaced her answer with a completely earnest “Sadly, I’ve been married to Ushio Shinohara for 30 years…” — Shinohara is an inspiring character. And these photos are great. There was a great image of an early painting called The 28th Brigands (I think), from 1956 at the talk, but I can’t find an image online.  Speaking of dedication, in recent years he’s had to use oxygen tanks to get through these performances, but he’s still swinging away.