Oh! Kinky desu ka? Opening Night

[Mann]

Oh! Kinky desu ka? is a gay, Japanese, erotic art exhibition that delves into the wild fetishes from the land of the rising sun. Here is my experience from the inside.

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It took us two full days and a lot of hard work, but we strung up every artwork and set everything up. Month’s worth of planning before this with flying all the artworks into Sydney. The keeper of the Tom Dunne gallery is a really nice guy. He’s constantly grumpy looking and an intimidating figure, but he really looked after us and meant well.

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Here we are going over everything. Mr Ichikawa even dressed for the night in a traditional Japanese sand kimono. I thought that his idea was incredibly cute. No other artist dressed up for the night.

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Then came the big hour. Opening time! I honestly wanted the entire world in our gallery space. Japanese artists don’t get much recognition because of their introverted, super polite, speak-no-evil culture. Even the underground stuff is largely unknown by the greater queer population. It was super important for them to get some recognition, acknowledgement and healthy encouragement for them to continue their wild, sexual abstractions.

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A surprisingly strong surge of people entered our gallery. I was standing outside with the grumpy gallery keeper and he made a point about this strength compared to every other exhibition he has in here. They like us, they really do!

[Mann]

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No opening party would be complete without copious amounts of liquor to complement the artworks. We had Champaign and sensible red wine. I had large amounts of both. Here are our cute friends that had a ball being exaggerated, faggy waiters for the night. They really didn’t need to! But the gayish glee and abandonment in their delight wasn’t something we wanted to interrupt.

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The crowd gathered for the opening night’s speeches. We’re very happy with the buzz in the room and the level of enthusiasm aglow. We had a really nice bunch of art lovers!

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The scary, big boss lady up in the higher level. No! She’s Ayumi. She’s lovely and spearheaded Japanese art into the western world as her life’s work. Very admirable.

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Mr Masahiko giving his opening speech. He absolutely hates speeches. I had great joy in making him recite it again and again and again in practice. When I felt mean and stopped, he continued so and kept bugging me about pronunciation. Again and again and again! When I actually use that bit of certified paper that says I’m an English teacher to teach in Japan, Mayumi, Masahiko and the artists said they’d gladly have me as their guest anytime. Aww, I love them so much.

[Mann]

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Mr Hardcore SM & Bondage Tagame giving his little speech. Where Masahiko introduced everything, Tagame really delved into gay Japanese art culture. He is the most famous, popular and successful gay Japanese artist. It was an honour to have him here.

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I met this really cool photographer there too. He was surprised at how much we overlapped in our pursuits of beautiful art. We both think that Japanese art is amazing but the infusion of western/eastern like Brett Whiteley’s ‘Alchemy’ is really electric. He insisted on me getting his card and getting my postal address so we can exchange our photographs. His 21 megapixel DLSR makes the photos way too big to transmit online. It was really nice talking to an accomplished guy like him on the path I’m taking and have him be so complimenting. I know, I’m going to be awesome/already am.

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I felt really overwhelmed by the audience wanting to talk to these artists that flew into Sydney for this. It was really nice hearing the interest and seeing the wide eyes. These guys totally deserve it.

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The room was filled with curious minds. It was art heaven for me! Japanese art, the artists, a great audience, Champaign, wine and did I mention Champaign?!

[Mann]

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And with that, we wrapped up the night. Ended up being well open past our printed hours but how could we kick these bastards out. They so delicately scanned all the artworks and talked. They were absolutely meticulous! Oh! Kinky desu ka? opening night, success!

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The artists, Masahiko, Ayumi, some of the super fans/buyers and I finished the late night at a nice Thai restaurant on Oxford. We ate lots of little bits of finger food and chatted the night well past midnight over beers, wine and more Champaign. This opening night, all the work before and exhibition was an incredibly special event to me. Art is a reflection of the world and the world is a beautiful place. The full spectrum should always be seen. Glee!

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PS. If you're interested in coming to 'Oh! Kinky desu ka?' the exhibition is evolving every day as we sell the artworks. I think our last day's display will be quite different to this opening night's. Oh God, we're going to look so ghetto.

PPS. Masahiko and his boyfriend are a super cute couple. I must blog about them profusely!

[poolboy jackson]

The subject matter is confronting but the intricacy and precision of the linework and colouring is amazing.

[alicepatel]

hi Guys! i want to share more informations

[alicepatel]

wow!!! wht r u doing !!!!!