Feb. 21, 1842 - I am like a feather floating in the atmosphere. On every side is depth unfathomable. -- Henry D. Thoreau

Journal of a Sabbatical

February 21, 1999

japan invaded by hamburgers

Our goals today were simple: get an extra key made for whoever is going to feed Emily while Nancy is in South Carolina, see geese, see the exhibition of paintings by Masami Teraoka in the Bell Gallery at Brown. We managed to accomplish all of them, and splurge at the Brown Bookstore as well.

We rented Antz last night after perusing both the Providence Journal and the Providence Phoenix for things to do. It seems like the price of concerts has gone up. Everything we were mildly interested in doing cost $25. Turns out we were due for a free rental at Acme Video. No contest. Antz turned out to be better than either of us expected. The animated ants are expressive (better drawn than the Saturday morning cartoons) and the voices are well done. I didn't mind Woody Allen as the nonconformist whining Z. In fact I think it was brilliant to cast him in that role. It was a fun way to spend an evening and save $50 on concert tickets.

We managed to get going early enough this morning to have breakfast at Downcity Diner and count all the ducks at the cove (mass quantities of canvasbacks) and still have plenty of time at the Masami Teraoka exhibition.

The Bell Gallery was kind of dimly lit and way too hot but the paintings were worth it. Teraoka paints watercolors in the style of the traditional woodblock prints and his images echo scenes of the floating world, but with modern elements invading. One of my favorites is a self-portrait ducking to avoid an attacking hamburger. In fact hamburgers invading Japan was a theme of a whole series of paintings. You might think that would be cartoonish but it's not. A street scene of feet shod in traditional geta treading on McDonald's wrappers and discarded French fries and burger remnants is downright haunting.

The Adam and Eve series draws more from western art and symbols and features the computer mouse and keyboard as a symbol of the modern age along with the condom. These are his paintings about AIDS. They're terrifying. They vent emotion that I always thought had to be kept in check. I had a powerful emotional response to these paintings mainly around the idea that the artist can react to the concept of AIDS as an issue in the world with an intensity that's not acceptable if you're in the real working world and dealing with the reality of a loved one's illness. I'm stopped in my tracks just writing a few innocuous words. It's been so long since Steven's death and I've become so convinced of the notion that even with HIV Thomas will outlive us all that I was surprised at the flood of feelings that erupted around those paintings. Guess I ain't done with it yet.

The snorkeling series was Nancy's favorite, particularly one of a gaijin woman holding an enormous catfish while a samurai looked on with envy. That samurai really coveted that catfish. The samurai was holding a mask and snorkel too, like that's a perfectly normal thing for a samurai to do. That whole series played the ancient and modern elements off against each other to great effect. In the guest book I wrote that the entire exhibition reminded me of the feelings I'd had the first time I visited Japan.

The images stuck with me the whole long drive home and into the evening.