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ARTCAT



Yummy Yami

FB Gallery
368 Broadway, No. 209, 917.495.2457
Tribeca / Downtown
April 11 - May 8, 2012
Reception: Wednesday, April 11, 6 - 9 PM
Web Site


FB Gallery is proud to present K-Narf’s Yummy Yami exhibition opening on Wednesday April 11th, 2012. Inspired by the true story of Issei Sagawa, K-Narf pushes the limits of how sex is portrayed in art—insisting on creating a jarring dialogue between images and the story behind them, the story of Mr. Sagawa: On June 11, 1981, Issei Sagawa, a 32 year old Japanese student in Paris, invited a young Dutch woman named Renée Hartevelt for dinner at his apartment under the pretense of translating German poetry. After she arrived, he shot her in the back while she was reading. He then began to carry out his plan to consume her flesh. After two days of eating her various body parts, Sagawa attempted to dump the mutilated body into a lake and was seen in the act. He was later arrested by the French police. His wealthy father provided a top lawyer for his defense and he was able to claim insanity. Sagawa spent a short time in a French mental institution, but was soon extradited to Japan where psychologists all found him to be sane but “evil” and thus it was legally impossible to hold him. As a result, Sagawa checked himself out of the mental institution on August 12, 1986, and has been a free man ever since. Sagawa now lives in Tokyo and is a minor Japanese celebrity. He is often invited as a guest speaker and commentator, he has written restaurant reviews, appeared in a pornographic film, and in a TV commercial for a Japanese restaurant chain.

Yummy Yami is a series of collages —Dyptique Photograffiti­­­—made from photographs of window displays of pornographic movie theaters in Tokyo and shots of French butcher shops. With the juxtaposition of images of raw meat and softcore erotica, Yummy Yami evokes the same discomfort as Sagawa’s story.

About K-narf Echoing the origins of street art by posting his works on public walls, K-Narf denounces the incoherencies and extravagances of our time. Both conceptual and experimental, his work documents, recycles and collects the “unusual,” bringing it to the forefront and reminding us all that the medium of photography is not limited to truth-seeking, but is also K-Narf’s favorite toy to create, play, and challenge his audience in his own unique way. For the past decade K-narf has lived and exhibited worldwide including Japan, Australia, France, Singapore, USA, and Italy. His exhibitions, often take the form of ephemeral installations and are shown in old theatres, galleries, art biennales or abandoned garages. His work has been shown, among others, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Scottsdale (US), Museum of Sydney, Japan Foundation for the Arts, The Yves Klein Archives, The French Embassy in Tokyo, Issey Miyake (Paris) , the Clic gallery in NYC and now FB gallery.

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