Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2010

“The Japanese eat sushi all the time. And they are obsessed with kinky sex.” These are just a couple of the prejudices that Westerners have about Japan, according to Boris Hoppek, yet another German artist seemingly paying off his country’s moral deficit from WWII by banging on about tolerance and political correctness. In Ever, his first solo show in Japan, Hoppek offers an amusing (and free) exhibition that’s inspired—if that’s the right word—by the lazy, generalized perceptions that some Westerners may have of the Japanese. Using naïve forms to echo the simplicity of the attitudes he is attacking, the artist has created a number of childish-looking “shunga” works, as well as other odd installations that invoke his racism-caricaturing “Bimbo” doll series. The highpoint, however, is a series of photographic prints featuring naked women as pieces of sushi. Now, that should put all those nasty Western racists firmly in their place ;–)

Diesel Denim Gallery Aoyama
Boris Hoppek. Ever. Photography, drawing. Until July 12, free. 6-3-3 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku. Tel: 03-6418-5323. Open daily 1-8pm. Nearest stn: Omotesando. www.diesel.co.jp/denimgallery