... but I stopped. Now I'm a dad, and may blog again...

Sunday, March 13, 2011

232: Yamantaka, Yamantaka Eye

Yamantaka Eye is a Japanese musician and artist (I last mentioned 200 posts ago), famous for his work with the band The Boredoms.  Been thinking about Japan and the music I discovered over there, and ended up watching Boredoms on YouTube.  Found this little gem.



Then I remembered his art is fantastically low-fi and nasty looking in the sort of Paper Rad or Neckface style I can’t help but love.  There doesn’t seem to be much of it about online which is a shame cos there is loads of Paper Rad.  I can’t find any books of Yamantaka Eye art either.  So as it is I’ll just have to throw up a bit of what I can find, pointlessly reproducing images from one part of the internet and dropping it here for evermore.


 



What's not to love? It's colourful, stupid, random, expressive.  This lead me to a random discovery I may not otherwise have ... erm... discovered.  Yamantaka is a dancing Buddhist demon, the Terminator of Death.  Forget Jesus and all that bollocks, this guy has fangs, hundreds of arms, ultimate enlightenment... and did I mention his name means the Terminator of Death.  Even more awesome than the T-1000.


When my coffers ring like Scrooge McDuck’s vault and I can buy art, I am seeking out some Yamantaka Eye, Paper Rad and Neckface.  While I’m at it I’ll get a couple of Martin Kippenberger’s and Daniel Johnston’s as well.  For now I’ll just have to take Karl Pilkington’s advice and “stop looking at the walls, look out of the window”.


Sunday tomorrow and I’ve got Health and Safety training and induction for my new job, before starting proper on Monday.  My hours are only 12.30 to 4.30 weekdays, which I find highly civilised and will allow me to pop into BLANKSPACE every afternoon to get a bit of work done.  In that respect I’m sort of looking forward to it.  As long as I actually use the free time I have and make a serious attempt to bring in a little money through writing or art (can anyone do that anymore?) then all will remain well.  Anyway perhaps I’d better try and sleep a little; its bedtime and I haven’t read any yet.  Got to get through a few more chapters of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and Empire (the second in the Foundation Series).  Night.


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