Inside Japanese artist Ay-Ō’s 'Happy Rainbow Hell' at the Smithsonian Museum

"The reason that it is difficult to depict heaven is probably because it doesn’t exist. But it’s easy to draw hell (…) We all possess an attraction to the diabolical, an inexpressible feeling of intoxication.” These are the words of Japanese artist Ay-Ō, whose work has been recently put up at The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. The exhibition, titled Ay-Ō’s Happy Rainbow Hell, encompasses over 80 stunning artworks by the artist and is a pioneering museum showcase of his craft in the United States. Ay-Ō is widely recognised as 'The Rainbow Artist' and this art exhibition will undoubtedly push his acclaim even further.

Takao Ijima, popularly known as Ay-Ō hails from the Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan and has over the course of his career become a prominent name in the Fluxus art movement as well as the contemporary pop art canon. He represented Japan at the 33^rd Venice Biennale and has over time been included in several exhibitions featuring Fluxus artists, along with many international solo exhibitions. So far, the artist has had two major retrospectives in Japan, the first of which was the Over the Rainbowexhibition organised by the Fukui Art Museum, in 2006. The second, a continuation of this, was titled Over the Rainbow Once More and was organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, in 2012. His compulsion in using the rainbow within his art comes from a desire to democratise colour and create a sense of playfulness. However, I wonder if seeing 80 such pieces together might not be disorienting instead. Oppressively so, even? Perhaps that is where the aspect of 'hell' comes from.

Kit Brooks, the Japan Foundation Assistant Curator of Japanese Art at the Smithsonian Museum sheds light on this, telling STIR, “In 1990, after almost three decades of making rainbow art, Ay-Ō began to refer to his compulsion of produce(ing) this kind of work as a 'rainbow hell' or ‘niji no jigoku’, since it felt like a duty he had been given by the universe, that he couldn’t escape." Exploring the artist’s experiment with the full spectrum of light, which led him down his current creative path, Brooks explains, “Ay-Ō had first begun working with rainbows in 1963. At the time, his studio was empty as all his work had been moved to a gallery for a show. He was working with sheets of aluminium to create small-scale environmental works, (that is) when he became aware of the light bouncing off the sheets of metal as he manipulated them, and how it was reflecting rainbows on the walls. He began rainbow painting at this time, in an effort to capture this effect more concretely. He started painting the walls of his studio in coloured bands, from the floor upwards, starting with a band of purple. He waited for each colour to dry before adding the next. Since Ay-Ō free-handed the bands, they were not in straight lines but followed an undulating wave that grew more and more exaggerated as each layer was added (...) the connection with light continued (over the years), as Ay-Ō remains interested in the rainbow for its ability to capture everything within the light spectrum that is visible to the human eye.”

This is a curious offering from Brooks, who usually focuses on works from the Edo and Meiji periods and more often than not is engaged in a re-evaluation of the more eccentric creative personalities that dot the artistic landscape of that time. In fact, this is the first exhibition focusing on a contemporary practitioner; one with whom they seem to have a fairly new engagement. Brooks expands on this, saying, "I had no professional relationship with the artist prior to this exhibition. I first encountered Ay-Ō’s work while interning at the British Museum, and then several years later when I was reviewing art show submissions for the annual Print Show organised by the College Women’s Association of Japan, to which Ay-Ō regularly submitted prior to his retirement, in 2017. I had the opportunity to get to know Ay-Ō over Zoom once I had already begun planning the exhibition at NMAA.” While Happy Rainbow Hell will undoubtedly capture the imagination of its audience, Brooks has no plans of organising another exhibition by the artist, explaining, “I have no current plans to organise other Ay-Ō exhibitions in the future, although I would be open to doing so as I continue to research his work.” This does leave the possibility of more Ay-Ō open, however, new fans of his work may feel frustrated at the shakiness of that prospect.

Brooks graduated from Harvard University with a PhD in Japanese Art History in 2017, apart from their research interests revolving around the eccentric artists of the 18^th century, they also maintained a close focus on the relationship between illustrated books and paintings, along with special prints that emulate the visual qualities of other media, such as surimono and takuhanga. Discussing their past work, Brooks says, “I have previously held positions at the British Museum, Harvard Art Museums, and the Children’s Museum in Boston. Prior to joining the NMAA, I curated the art exhibition Uncanny Japan: The Art of Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) at the Worcester Art Museum in 2015 and co-curated Living Proof: Drawing in 19th-Century Japan at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. This ran from 2017 to 2018. Since joining the NMAA in 2019, I have curated several exhibitions, including Underdogs and Antiheroes: Japanese Prints from the Moskowitz Collection, and Feathered Ink, which were both on from 2022 to 2023.”

Brooks hopes that this offering of Ay-Ō’s rainbow silkscreen prints, shown together with some of the tactile, experiential objects that he developed during his earlier career, will be experienced as a continuum, exploring visual and tactile sensations. They believe that Ay-Ō’s interest in texture recontextualises even his prints as possessing a third dimension of their own; becoming truly immersive surfaces that will overwhelm audiences, leaving them euphoric and eagerly waiting for more.