Coke Wisdom O’Neal’s “Blue Nude” traps its subjects in a Plexiglas box
Mixed Greens
531 West 26th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through Saturday, March 19, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-331-8888
www.mixedgreens.com
www.cokewisdomoneal.com
Since 2005, New York City-based artist Coke Wisdom O’Neal has been filling Mixed Greens with enchanting photos of men, women, and children standing in a twenty-two-foot-tall unpainted wooden box. Although the photographs appear to be digitally manipulated, they are not; the subjects are encouraged to dress however they want and bring objects with them, but their identity gets lost inside the mammoth specimen box, making them look minuscule and unreal until visitors get up close and spend time with them. For his fifth solo exhibition at the gallery, O’Neal has turned things around with “Blue Nude,” a series of striking photographs of naked men and women who have squeezed into a small, transparent Plexiglas box, folding and twisting their bodies to desperately try to fit in the cramped space. From a distance, it appears as if the people are trapped in the white walls of the gallery itself, trying to burst free, but up close their contorted bodies are both beautiful and painful to look at. While O’Neal’s previous shows offered his subjects several layers of freedom, these claustrophobic photos snatch that away from them, robbing the anonymous men and women of any identity whatsoever, making the viewer both awestruck and uncomfortable — and wondering if they would be able to fit in the box themselves. As with O’Neal’s earlier work, many of the photos seem unreal, primarily the ones in which the bodies push up against the box, at times looking more like paintings. “Blue Nude” is another fascinating show from this inventive photographer.
Mixing in a liberal amount of Time Bandits with The Wizard of Oz, throwing in a little Hayao Miyazaki, and adding dashes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lord of the Rings, Gremlins, Return of the Jedi, Labyrinth, and even Kill Bill, Takashi Miike has wound up with an entertaining fantasy film for both kids and adults. Known more for such ultraviolent, hard-to-watch frightfests as Audition and Ichi the Killer, Miike reveals his softer side in this genre film based on yokai manga by Shigeru Mizuki (who also plays the Demon King). Ryunosuke Kamiki is splendid as Tadashi, a young city boy taking care of his grandfather (Hiroyuki Miyasako) in a country village, where he is chosen at a local festival as the mythical Kirin Rider, the guardian of peace and friend of justice. Soon he finds himself in a real battle between good and evil, taking him from the heights of the Great Goblin’s mountain cave to the depths of a seedy underworld run by the very white Agi (Chiaki Kuriyama) and powerful mastermind Katou Yasunori (Etsushi Toyokawa). Joined by yokai spirits Kawahime (Mai Takahashi), Kawatarou (Sadao Abe), and the oh-so-cute Sunekosuri (we’d buy one of these in a second if they ever hit the market), Tadashi fights to save the human world, wielding his special sword against a phalanx of mechanical robots and other villainous creatures. At more than two hours, The Great Yokai War is at least twenty minutes too long and would have greatly benefited by the excision of one very silly subplot. But it is still a charming tale from the reigning master of horror. The Great Yokai War is screening for only $5 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Shinjuku Outlaw: 13 from Takashi Miike,” being held March 16-20 in conjunction with Subway Cinema and also including such Miike films as Fudoh: The New Generation (1996), The Bird People in China (1998), Shangri-la (2002), and the awesome new 13 Assassins (2010). Miike was originally scheduled to appear at the Walter Reade Theater to introduce several screenings but has had to cancel because of the catastrophic events occurring in Japan.
Takashi Miike, who about ten few years ago had New York filmgoers rushing to Film Forum to see Audition — and then rushing to get out because of the violent torture scenes — did it again with Ichi the Killer, a faithful adaptation of Hideo Yamamoto’s hit manga. When Boss Anjo goes missing while beating the hell out of a prostitute, his gang, led by Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), a multipierced blond sadomasochist, tries to find him by threatening and torturing members of other gangs. As the violence continues to grow — including faces torn and sliced off, numerous decapitations, innards splattered on walls and ceilings, body parts cut off, and self-mutilation — the killer turns out to be a young man named Ichi (Nao Omori), whose memory of a long-ago brutal rape turns him into a costumed avenger, crying like a baby as he leaves bloody mess after bloody mess on his mission to rid the world of bullies. This psychosexual S&M gorefest, which is certainly not for the squeamish, comes courtesy of the endlessly imaginative Miike, who trained with master filmmaker Shohei Imamura and seems to love really sharp objects. The excellent — and brave — cast also includes directors Sabu and Shinya Tsukamoto and Hong Kong starlet Alien Sun. The film is screening as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Shinjuku Outlaw: 13 from Takashi Miike,” being held March 16-20 in conjunction with Subway Cinema and also including such Miike films as Fudoh: The New Generation (1996), Agitator (2001), Crows Zero II (2009), and the awesome new 13 Assassins (2010). Miike was originally scheduled to appear at the Walter Reade Theater to introduce several screenings but has had to cancel because of the catastrophic events occurring in Japan.
