Art in Japan>Contemporary Art 1930-2004>Raymond Pettibon: Plots Laid Thick & Rirkrit Tiravanija: Untitled, 2002 (the raw and the cooked)

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Raymond Pettibon: Plots Laid Thick & 

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Untitled, 2002 (the raw and the cooked)

by John McGee

Raymond Pettibon, untitled (He had seen...), 1998, ink on paper 
(Courtesy the artist and Regen Projects)

Gumby stands facing the cover of Paradise Lost. "Dore's illustrations ruined it for me," is scrawled next to him. Maybe this is what the little green lump of clay really thinks of Milton's book. Or, more likely, it's a thought bubble percolating through Raymond Pettibon's mind. The Los Angeles-based artist collages elements of comics, literature and poetry into one-frame American narratives where lumpy surfers ponder morality, Superman comes to terms with his complex sexuality, and Charles Manson tells his side of the story.

Pettibon's mini-retrospective of more than 500 drawings and paintings is one of two simultaneous solo exhibitions that comprise "Solo/s" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery. The other is new work by Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija: a monumental fake feast assembled from scores of different plastic display foods and packaged convenience foods (plus an interactive website). This first experiment in filling Opera City's cavernous space with dual solo shows is a boon for visitors, who can see the work of two important international artists for the price of one. It's not really a double feature, more like an appetizer and an entree.

Tiravanija, 40, is best known as a gracious host. Inside museums worldwide, he has cooked characteristic Thai dishes like curry or pad thai, recreated his New York apartment and set up art centers for children. He invites visitors to eat, lounge and play. Their social interactions form the artwork. 

Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled, 2002
(the raw and the cooked), mixed media
(Photo: ©Keizo Kioku, courtesy Tokyo
Opera City Art Gallery)

Tiravanija's work here, however, is uniquely inactive. Instead of edible food, the artist entices visitors with synthetic sashimi and non-nan, cups-o'-noodles and bottles of wine laid out on a huge plywood table. The artist notes that this is a new recipe for him, a contextual experiment addressing the specifics of Japanese food culture. He adds that he is actually most interested in the wall-mounted video monitors showing an artisan making a plastic likeness of his pad thai. "That's activity, that's where life is," he said. 

Pettibon's poetic drawings are the main course at Opera City. The artist, 44, fits between William Blake, Roy Lichtenstein and R. Crumb. But Gumby is one of his main role models. "I like the way he can go into books and affect the story...it's kinda like what I do," he said. 

Pettibon lifts pictures and phrases from Mexican photo novellas, comics, and literature (a vitrine shows some of his archives) and rewrites them into dense moments that defy simple reading. Irony and sincerity, belief and skepticism, confidence and self-doubt meet at Pettibon's crossroads of subculture and Americana. 

Punk rockers from the 1980s will know Pettibon's many album covers, e.g. My War by Black Flag (his brother was their guitarist) and Goo by Sonic Youth. But most of his recurring motifs—trains, hippies, baseball and the Bible—will be familiar to everybody. They may not, however, be the way you left them in your memory—oops, there's Mickey Mouse exposing his genitals. 

Several of Pettibon's videos—personal, often ridiculous reinterpretations of social movements like the '70s Weathermen and '80s punk rock—are also on view. And, to add a little chaos to the staid gallery installation, the artist tacked up Pettibon-esque drawings he requested his young niece and nephew to make.

The Raymond Pettibon: Plots Laid Thick & Rirkrit Tiravanija: Untitled, 2002 (the raw and the cooked) exhibitions were held June-Aug 2002 at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in Hatsudai, Tokyo, Japan.

©2006 John McGee

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