youki hirakawa
Sensor
Sensor / 2022
Censored porn magazines from 70-80s, Silver Paint, Dimensions Variable
The work uses pornographic magazines imported from various Western countries in the 1970s and 80s. Under Japanese law, it was prohibited to show images of the genitals in porn magazines (distribution of indecent content), and still is today. All imported porn magazines of the 1970-80s were censored with the genitals blacked out. Consumers would duly attempt to scratch it off or dissolve it using water or bodily fluids, and in this process, Hirakawa senses the basic and artistic human “desire to see.” The pornographic magazines, whose surfaces are painted silver apart from the blacked out parts, reflect those who see it, functioning as the exposed parts of a photograph prepared with silver halide. The silver magazines are laid out and fill the floor as a minimal installation embedded with a sharp criticality.
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