Book Review: Monument For Nothing

Monument for Nothing is a 246-page portfolio art book for 会田 誠 (Makoto Aida). It's in Japanese but comes with English translation for all text inside.

Makoto Aida had wanted to start out as a manga writer but eventually chose the career route to be an artist. He's more of an illustrator than a manga artist. His versatility is showcased in this book, through the various illustrative style, be it manga, video or installation art. There's no just one style.

His weird and oftentimes abstract concepts express his cynical worldview. The piece with Japanese planes flying in an infinite loop over New York City represents the hidden fantasy of Japanese souls. The satiric and mocking video The Video of a Man Calling Himself Bin Laden Staying in Japan shows Aida himself acting as Bin Laden redeeming himself in fake accent while sitting with empty sake bottles. There's also one with female nudes being blended in a blending machine.

The images only give us a glimpse into his mind. The captions help too.

Provocative. Controversial. Shocking. Dark. Complex. You'll see a lot of that in this book.

Monument for Nothing (Japanese Edition) is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

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