shashasha

In this 2008 photobook, published on occasion of Nobuyoshi Araki’s exhibition “Hana Kinbaku” at Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo, Araki’s two obsessions “Thanatos” and “Eros” are in complete interplay. Juxtaposing close-up photographs of flowers and photos of women tied up in Japanese bondage rope-work, Araki lends a peculiar beauty to the bondaged women and accentuates the inherent frivolous eroticism of the flowers. Visually overwhelming, the layout of the book combines larger photographs with vibrant mosaical patterns of more than 18 images per page.

“The ropework doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t aim for perfection, you don’t seek to create an artpiece. When you’re binding, you aren’t binding the body but the mind. My kind of binding always leaves a few cracks through which to escape, though. It doesn’t need to be perfect.”
— from Nobuyoshi Araki’s statement (translation by shashasha)

＊Some pages may feature slight discolorations near the fold due to the glue