The first picture is called "Show Girl" by Akane KoideThe second picture is called "Butcher Shop" by Mahomi Kunikata
The first image shows a schoolgirl, maybe of high school age laying on a pile of money inside of a dead looking eye. The title suggests that this girl might be the type of girl who goes out with men for money and shows them a good time. The money she is laying on is the material reward she gets from these ventures, while the fake smile on her face and the eye she is laying in tell a different story. The smile she gives seems sad in nature, almost like the smile one gives when one has completely given up and all you can do is smile to hide the pain. The eye she is laying in represents the stares she might get as she walks down the street or the constant viewing she gets from men all day long. The deadness of the eye represents the emptiness this girl is feeling, I think she is like the walking dead, without a purpose and does not know how to get out the situation she is in now.
The Second image is more disturbing in nature. This image is a good example of using something cute to incite fear or dread. The type of fear being represented here is analogous to the fear some people feel over dolls and the like. The girl in the image is the stereotypical cute Japanese anime character, but the fact that there is blood all over her shirt from the meat she is eating, and the fact that she looks so innocent doing it make the image seem very disturbing. Also, seeing the bloody baseball right next to her feet immediately brings the thought of cannibalism into ones mind and brings another dimension of horror into the image.
I agree that the second image can be seen as disturbing. I think the second image might be particularly apt for an analysis of how the abject and kawaii intersect. Along the lines of Kristeva's thought, blood is something that is internal to our bodies and crucial to our existence, and yet repulses us when seen on the outside. How can the bloody meat be analyzed along similar lines? Why are we drawn to such images?
ReplyDeleteFor the first image, I think the eye leads more to the "gaze". It is engulfing her, because her purpose and profession are now to satisfy the male gaze.
ReplyDeleteShe looks actually relaxed and happy to me, but the eye reveals to us what she does not realize.
Well, the title of the first image is "Show Girl" after all, so yes, the money is from displaying herself for others, and the eye could be interpreted in two ways,a s far as I see it- the girl's own eye, or that of the eyes on her.
ReplyDeleteFor the title and her position, her undergarments are impressively not sexualized, bright blue and covering a large mount of her beneath her skirt as boxers might.It made me wonder why do much space is devoted to this deep blue, and retreating from the image, both the bottom end of the girl and the blue-toned bills of money resemble the welling of tears.
The the money she lays on also seems like some bastion of support- laying languidly amongst them, she almost looks as though she is falling asleep, though the slightly purple tints at the edges of her eyes gives a suggestion of ill-feeling. Is the gaze her own eye, warped and weary, or that of a customer, presumably a man, who looks upon her like a drug from which he cannot break away?
The second image is terribly curious- Is she actually eating that meat, or merely hiding behind it? At first, without looking at the title, I thought she was a nurse, and I wonder if this isn't a commentary on the 'nurse' image. Similar outfit, cute girl, bits of red- but in a butcher shop, we have a very different context. She looks as though she might be threatened, or simply gazing on over the edge of the meat she clings to. The baseball of course makes the audience wonder, where did it come from? It makes me assume it is related to whomever she is looking slightly aside at. ...And is there a bat to match it?
Why is her robe so splattered? It looks as though something were cut or struck violently to spray across her so much, and the position of the ball relates the blood spray to the movement of the ball breaking glass- the blood splatter present on the balls as well suggests it was involved.
The combination of the cute and violence provides to contradictory points for consideration: is the combination of a 'cute' figure involved in committing violence, which ruins the non-intimidating, powerless image these cute figures usually provide? Or is this an image of a 'cute' figure as a victim of violence, which supports their hapless lack of intimidation, but disturbs the audience by introducing them to a world where such defenselessness results in being harmed? For others, continuing a view of this image from the latter standpoint, does it in a twisted way make the image of the girl even more cute because it confirms her infantile state in incapability and powerlessness at the hands of the one assaulting her?
ok I'm going to be honest and say that I think these pictures are gross and am not at all comfortable with looking at them, and since that is the case, I have nothing to say about them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments
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