One of the very few studios I ever got to visit in Japan was Tat Ito’s humble ground-floor kitchen-sized room in Tokyo a few years ago. Ever since, I’ve been keeping a close eye on his practice, following the development of what he calls “social history paintings” in which the Western or European traditions are fused with his native Japanese culture, both historic and contemporary. And as the culmination of his ongoing research, the artist is now showing Current Position at Akiinoue in Tokyo.
As the title of the show suggests, this body of work focuses on the present moment and the role of a position or structure within an image. At the same time, it is also a simplified way of presenting the latest advances from this continuing study of possible touching points between his Japanese roots and Western artistic training. Having studied in the US, Ito was heavily influenced by the legacy of European paintings, particularly religious and mythological paintings. After years of creating his own Kojiki-like chronicles, Ito shifted his focus to using existing historic formats as templates to examine how individuals are shaped by collective structures.
Taking works by Veronese, Poussin, and Degas, as well as Japanese greats such as Kuniyoshi, and looking at their compositions and structures, Ito replaced the existing scenes with sights of Japanese youth. Loitering, partying, moshing, or just killing time, they’re now standing in place of royals, clergy, or famous biblical characters. But instead of fully staging and strictly positioning his muses, he allowed them to be themselves within set constraints, questioning a connection between the social dynamics of the past and present, the West and the East. In addition, the square-framed scenes are rendered loosely, illustrating fashionable youth and their attitude rather than portraying individuals. Consequently, the work feels more universal and relatable, capturing the dynamics of a “crowd imbued with peer pressure” at the Current Position between two distinct traditions and timelines. —Saša Bogojev
Here are some thoughts about the references and the ideas behind using them that Ito shared on his Instagram:
Nicolas Poussin’s The Massacre of the Innocents - I took the one-sided violence from authority and the cries of despair shown in the original painting and completely flipped them. Instead, it’s a scene of young people exploding with energy at a live music club. In our everyday lives, it often feels like our true selves are being crushed by the pressure to conform and invisible social rules. As a way to fight back against that, I wanted to capture their pure, raw impulses—using music as a weapon and slamming their bodies together on stage and in the mosh pit.
Paolo Veronese’s The Martyrdom of Saint George - It links Saint George, who raised his middle finger to the absolute power of the Roman Empire, with the modern indie spirit that holds fast to its own style against prevailing conformity. At the center of the canvas, a squad representing contemporary systems and social pressure surrounds an alien who has dropped out of that framework. Borrowing Veronese’s composition, the piece depicts the tense, suffocating atmosphere of modern society, where silent pressure and violent gazes intersect.
Edgar Degas’ Young Spartans Exercising - Degas used the kids from the back alleys of Paris as models to paint Sparta, the ultimate totalitarian society, where individual freedom was strictly controlled for the good of the state. I took the core idea behind his painting and transposed it into our modern world. In the background, I painted housing complexes. There were so many of these buildings where I grew up, so they’re a huge part of my original landscape. At the same time, though, these standardized, lined-up complexes hint at a social system designed to manage and contain us. And in front of them, you see these young people glaring at each other. They’re clashing with raw defiance, basically shouting, “There’s no way in hell we’re letting this system swallow us whole!”
Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s Edo no Hana (Flowers of Edo) - By transposing the original scene into the enclosed space of a contemporary school, the work depicts the subtle and cold forms of violence that permeate modern society. At the center of the composition is an individual with their own unique tastes and beliefs, deliberately isolated by the majority group. Rather than the physical flames and fistfights associated with the Edo period, the protagonist is here surrounded by silent pressure and violent gazes—an invisible, cold fire that closes in on them. In Kuniyoshi’s time, the phrase “Fires and quarrels are the flowers of Edo” was commonly used to describe the city’s spirited culture. The society portrayed here, however, is fundamentally different. Pinned to the blackboard are photographs and quotations of late Edo-period political activists such as Yoshida Shōin and Takasugi Shinsaku, figures who lived during Kuniyoshi’s lifetime and played significant roles in the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate.
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