Customer Reviews

Graffiti Japan

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GRAFFITI JAPAN is another fine book on contemporary art and design from Mark Batty Publisher. As with all of their books this volume addresses art in a specific place and assures the reader/viewer that the cultural background of that location is woven throughout this richly illustrated volume to add to the pleasure of encountering fresh art forms as a meaningful experience.

Remo Camerota, an artist and photographer, traveled to Japan, not knowing the language but with a desire to study and understand what makes Japanese graffiti unique. In a vivid introduction he paints the scene for his visit and after his preface he turns to one of the graffiti artists (KRESS) to open the path for examining Japanese graffiti. Fifteen graffiti artists are presented in full-color reproductions of their art and the variations among these artists' works are gradually identifiable through the superb photographs, most of them by the author and investigator Camerota. As each artist is reviewed a conversation with Camerota is presented and this writing is both sensitive and humorous, and always shaped by the honest convictions of each artist's intent. The book then approaches the graffiti as it differs among four cities - Hiroshima, Osaka, Kanagawa and Tokyo.

That is the background description for this book. But the importance of the volume lies in the fully saturated illustrations and design that allows the viewer to appreciate graffiti in a completely new light. The quality of art from these street artists is pristine in execution, highly innovative in design (there is a major influence of one of Japan's own contributions to the art world - anime), and in many ways competes with the huge murals that have long been a part of our universal artistic heritage. Japanese graffiti artists may have 'borrowed' the concept of graffiti art from the USA, but the works represented in his magnificently illustrated volume are uniquely their own. This is a beautiful book that not only dazzles with color and design, but also makes for a terrific nidus for roundtable discussion on the role of graffiti as an art form. This book IS art! Highly recommended for students and art collectors alike. Grady Harp, September 08

When I was teaching high school in the Los Angeles area in the early 1990s the subject of graffiti was contentious. People on the right saw it as defacing public and private property and promoting illegal lifestyles. Those on the left tended to be more tolerant. I had some taggers in my classroom, one of whom was very talented. I had him to do a magazine style report on "writing." It was very good. But I was advised by a colleague not to "reward" such behavior. I found it interesting that KRESS in his introduction states that he began writing "around 1994 and was influenced by the graffiti in Los Angeles."

It seemed to me at first that "bombing" was just marking territory such as when a tiger sprays his domain. And perhaps that was the case. But today many of the taggers are artists, and some are not only very talented, but hardworking and creative. Remo Camerota, who is originally from Australia, took thousands of photos of graffiti in some of the major cities of Japan while befriending and working with local artists. The result is this beautiful compilation.

I had to use a magnifying glass on some of the artwork. There is a lot of intricate detail in Japanese graffiti and a clear emphasis on color. I liked the flow and the movement of the writing. The style is bold and expressive with hints of something underlying and secret. Remo says that he would not have been able to find a lot of the graffiti without the help of the writers who showed him their hidden places.

The way the book is put together with interviews with the various writers along with glossy photos of their work brings to life not only the world of the writing "crews" but of modern Japan itself. Each city has its own scene and style according to KRESS.

This isn't your father's graffiti. These artists have taken tagging to an entirely new level in terms of artistic expression and achievement. The photography in this book serves not only to show us the art, which will weather and eventually disappear, but to capture it for generations to come.

Japan has long been known for taking Western culture and adding innovative, unique twists ... but graffiti has taken a distinctly different route away from its western origins, infusing Japanese culture more deeply than other art forms - and GRAFFITI JAPAN reveals these differences, offering up interviews with notable taggers and color visual images of their art. Whether you view graffiti as vandalism or public art, GRAFFITI JAPAN offers college-level art libraries and those strong in Japanese history and culture a fine survey of Japanese artists and purposes.