Atelier Third

I was about to review Yoshitomi Akihito's excellent 'Unrecorded Works', since I've already branched outside dōjin in the past... but I realized it's been fully scanlated already, so just take my word and go read it. Instead, I'll be reviewing a magazine issue. Yeah.

One of the things that I kind of expected, yet still surprised me when I was over in Tokyo and Kyoto, was the sheer number of commercial art galleries. These big Japanese cities have been, and still are, a flowerbed of ephemeral trends and micro-cultures (for the mainstream take on this you can pick up any FRUiTS back issue, take a look at Tokyo Fashion, or even watch a few Kawai.i International episodes - very mainstream sources, but sometimes they do strike gold). I even ended up, more or less by mistake, in the mid of a Yasuto Sasada vernissage, artist included. I have a print of his in my house too, by the way.

Published ephemera in the field of Japanese contemporary art (subculture-oriented, of course) is kind of difficult to get a hold of, so I usually buy mine secondhand. I've only recently become acquainted with Talking Heads: released by art publisher Atelier Third, this magazine straddles the line between ephemeral and collectible, as each issue is themed; fairly beefy (almost 200 pages on average); and professionally glue-bound. Topic vary but usually focus on the intersection between fine/ commercial arts, fashion, and that peculiar horror-meets-kawaii aesthetics that has been dominating japanese subculture for... pretty much decades now.

Each issue follows an anthology format, with about a dozen artists featured. Photographers are usually reserved the twenty or so color pages at the beginning and middle of the issue, while illustrators, manga and essays take up the bulk of the b&w pages. Contents are usually very NSFW: issue 32, for example, features a few bondage artists, as well as guro illustrators. I tend to enjoy that kind of fringe-themed artwork, so generally the contents of Talking Heads are right up my alley. While images dominate, the publication is not beginner friendly language-wise, and there are a few fairly lenghty essays collected toward the end of each issue.

Atelier Third is also worth exploring in its own right, as its range of publications has a lot to offer, to those into the darker side of Japan's alt culture: a slew of monographies, slightly more mainstream art periodicals (the very interesting ExtrART, for example), and the horror/dark fantasy short story quarterly Night Land. A publisher worth keeping an eye on.