The fascination of Taishi Hirokawa's work does not lie not the photographs themselves. In his meticulous attention to detail, Hirokawa seems like a technician in certain respects. What is fresh and exciting about this collection is the surprise one feels at being presented with a paradox that is almost shocking in its sharpness. Strictly speaking, this project is not photography, performance or plastic art, yet it could be said that it constitutes a deeper analysis of this age and its phenomena than any one of them can provide.

Hirokawa's experiment is based on the simple concept of having farmers or fishermen dress in designer clothes of such brands as Nicole, Y's, and Comme des Garcons. However, the result is not dissonance but rather a direct extension of the kind of code manipulation that we all semi-consciously engage in. This is because the most basic impulse behind fashion is people's desire to adorn themselves attractively. The development of this urge into a kind of intellectual statement probably occurred in parallel with the evolution of the modern mind. Yet the fashion statement undoubtedly contained an element of dissemblance and imitation. In most instances, it must have evolved from there to fashions that symbolized something through some sort of message. This is clearly reflected in the use of the word “style” to describe fashions, an in Middle Eastern-style, Chinese-style and Western-style. Fashion has thus come into being through the manipulation of a system of already established codes. Recently emphasis in fashion has been placed on the use of lain materials through the positive adoption of motifs that had been overlooked or underrated. As a result of this trend, the element of design has come to the fore together with the impulse to imitate. Since plain materials considerably detract from fashionableness, the importance of skill or techniques in manipulating these motifs has increased proportionately. This can be viewed as the individual statement of the designer as an artist, which has led to our semi-conscious assumption that the element of surprise and freshness of contemporary fashion rests mainly upon a paradox. Fashion is made conspicuous by danger and dissonance: this is the manipulation of codes.

If this paradox were turned on its head once more to restore logicality, would fashion lose its identity? This is her essence of Hirokawa's experiment. It is quite similar to asking whether “post-modern” will revert to “modern”. Hirokawa's works tell us that the answer is no, fro we can never return to a state of innocence.

Yukio Kondo　Associate Professor, Keio University/Art Critic
DREAM, No.274, 1987