Difficult Work: Tetsumi Kudo

When I saw this piece, 'Olympic Winners Platform' by Tetsumi Kudo, I was instantly disturbed. The colors of the piece are so bright and cheery so that at first glance, one would almost miss the severed pieces of a body strewn throughout the platform. It made me think what would provoke someone to create something like this. The piece as a whole has an almost tragic feeling. It was designed as an irony pairing "Human tenacity and the communion of nations" with the decomposing human body parts. Kudo designed the piece after the playwright Eugene Ionesco. I think this irony is what makes the work so difficult. Not only are the colors bright and happy, but the whole idea of the olympics bringing together a whole world full of people seems to reprisent a sort of global unity. Then the viewer sees these cut up body parts littered around the platform and all those dreams of unity and happiness are instantly crushed.

Photo and research information comes from: http://www.artsconnected.org/collection/110797/event-horizon-a-study-set?print=true