PoNJA-GenKon 10th Anniversary Symposium
For a New Wave to Come: Post-1945 Japanese Art History Now

PoNJA-GenKon (ponja-genkon.net) is a scholarly listserv group of scholars, curators, and researchers interested in the study of contemporary Japanese art, founded in April 2003. Since

Alexandra Munroe’s landmark exhibition Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky brought about the first wave of widespread interest in modern and contemporary Japanese art, the past few years have seen a second wave of scholarship that tackles the central themes of postwar Japanese art, ranging from Gutai to 1960s art to Mono-ha. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of PoNJA-GenKon, the special lecture, the workshop, and the panels present the latest scholarship by specialists and academics in the field of post-1945 Japanese art history, aka “Ponja,” followed by video art presentations.

The program is co-organized by PoNJA-GenKon and New York University’s East Asian Studies and hosted by Japan Society Gallery.

Day 1: September 12, 2014, Friday

1:30pm
Special Lecture,
Matsuzawa Yutaka in the Collection of MoMA
Reiko Tomii
Independent Scholar / co-founder PoNJA-GenKon

3:30pm
Workshop on Archival Documents,
Moderated by Midori Yoshimoto
Associate Professor of Art History/Gallery Director, New Jersey City University

Japanese Mail Art, 1956-2014
John Held, Jr.
Independent curator

Encapsulating an Archival Impulse: Kud Tetsumi’s Philosophy of Impotence, as Seen through His Archive
Rika Hiro
Ph.D. candidate, Art History, University of Southern California

Narrative Resonance: Asian American Art Archives
Alexandra Chang
Curator of Special Projects & Director of Global Arts Programs, New York University–Asian/Pacific/American Institute

Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s Four Thoughts: A Mystery Wrapped in an Enigma with Full Documentary Misinformation
Kevin Concannon
Professor of Art History and Director, School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech

Seeing A Panorama of Sightseeing Art at Tama: Nakamura Hiroshi's Notebook at Tobunken
Kikkawa Hideki, with translation by Nina Horisaki-Christens
Research Fellow, Department of Art Research, Archives and Information Systems, Independent Administrative Institution National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo (Tobunken)

Day 2: September 13, 2014, Saturday

1:30pm
New Scholarship Panels + Video Art Presentations,
Discussant-at-Large
Alexandra Munroe
Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art, Guggenheim Museum

Panel 1: Students
Moderated by Yasufumi Nakamori
Associate Curator, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Lecturer, Rice University

Ruins of Flesh and Stone: A Foundational Discourse of Japanese Pornography in Postwar Media
Elizabeth Noelle Tinsley
Teaching fellow and Ph.D. candidate, Religion Department, Columbia University

Roofs and Grids in Postwar Japan: Tange Kenzo, Shirai Seiichi, and Murano Togo
Maki Iisaka
Ph.D. student, Texas A&M University

Around Kankyo: The Exhibition Installation of From Space to Environment
Yasutaka Tsuji
JSPS Research Fellow, Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

Mura-e: Sanrizuka and a Shift in Documentaries of Protest
Nina Horisaki-Christens
Ph.D. degree student, Columbia University

Bodies In-Between Spaces in dumb type’s Intermedia Performance OR
Joo Yun Lee
Ph.D. candidate, Art History and Criticism, Stony Brook University, SUNY

Panel 2: Professionals
Moderated by Thomas Crow
Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art; Associate Provost for the Arts, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

Towards a New Human Geography of Paris
Ming Tiampo
Director, Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture; Associate Professor, Art History, Carleton University, Ottawa

Tokyo Pop’s Second Wave: Tanaami Keiichi and Yokoo Tadanori
Hiroko Ikegami
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University

Koizumi Meiro: The Kamikaze Projects—Toward a Definition of “Third Generation” in Japan
Ayelet Zohar
Lecturer, History of Art Dept., Tel Aviv University

Collective Response: Ito Toyo, Hatakeyama Naoya, and the Utopian Promise of the T?hoku Disaster
Majella Munro
Researcher, Tate Research Centre: Asia-Pacific, London

Yanagi Yukinori and the Inland Sea: Demography, Politics, and Welfare in "Post-Growth" Utopian Community Art Projects
Adrian Favell
Professor of Sociology, Sciences Po, Paris

Admission Free.
Advance registration required.
Please e-mail to MailPonjagmail.com
1) your name
2) your affiliation
3) date(s) of programs you want to attend

Leadership support provided by Blum & Poe, Yumiko Chiba Associates, Fergus McCaffrey, and Axel Vervoordt Gallery.

Special support provided by The Japan Foundation, the American Chai Trust, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, and David Teiger.