Here’s a widely unknown, but interesting example of intercultural influence exchange: Hans Bellmer can be easily called the godfather of Japan’s thriving puppet scene. In fact, the majority of currently active Japanese doll designers graduated from the famous Ecole de Simon. Its founder, Yotsuya Simon, was the originator of the now thriving dollmaking scene.

In 1965, a young artist nicknamed Simon (because of his love for jazz, especially Nina Simone) learned about surrealism and avant-garde theater, which would influence him for the rest of his life. Soon after, he became a member of Jokyo Gekijo (Situation Theatre), which was considered one of the most progressive art movements in Japan at that time. Simultaneously, fascinated by Bellmer, Simon began to create his own ball-jointed dolls.

His most famous works – the Narcissisme and Pygmalionisme series – appear to be studies on the ambiguities of the human body. The life-like, waifish, pale bodies, surgically opened and exposed to the spectator’s eye, bear a mark of complete sadness, leaving the observer with a feeling of acute unease. One might raise the subject of ambivalent eroticism here: it’s remarkable that one of Yotsuya’s past exhibitions was named Dolls of Innocence.

Continuing his explorations of the human body, Simon himself has become a model as well: in The Prelude of Yotsuya Simon, a photographic project made in collaboration with Hosoe Eikoh, Simon’s body, melting into surrounding architecture, turned into a part of the urban landscape.

Yotsuya Simon’s works were introduced to a wider Western audience by the Hans Bellmer Society, a group of artists and curators cultivating the artistic output of Hans Bellmer in his native city of Katowice, Poland. This vibrant art collective, ran by performer Małgorzata Borowska and occult-influenced painter Andrzej Urbanowicz, supports the undercurrent of esoteric art in Central/Eastern Europe.

Read more about Simon’s fascinating life in this handy chronology on his official website.

Pygmalionisme, Narcissisme, 1998

Posted by Guest Blogger: Olga Drenda on February 2nd, 2011
Filed under Japan, Puppetry, Surreal, Uncanny Valley