Jesus Christ Yamagiwa Electric Corporation Ltd.

Title: Jesus Christ/Yamagiwa Electric Corporation Ltd.
Artist: Tadanori Yokoo
Medium: Printed four color poster
Size: 73.0 x 102.9 cm
Date: 1974
Location: Various; Edition of 1974.

John 14:1-30 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” [...] Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you [...]”

This poster was used as a window display by an electric light company, and for the simple reason that it was produced in 1974, exactly 1,974 copies were printed. The sacred triangular symbol above the head of Christ is taken from the Tantra Art. As always, Yokoo is perfectly willing to use one religion’s sacred symbol to express the idea of another religion. In Tantrism a triangular shape with the apex pointing downwards represents the feminine creative energy of the universe, yet Yokoo’s inclusion of the triangle here, it has been given no more significance than a Christian symbol representing the Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Tadanori Yokoo (June 1936) is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter. Born in Nishiwaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, he is one of Japan's most successful and internationally recognized graphic designers and artists. He began his career as a stage designer for avant garde theatre in Tokyo. By the late 60s he had already achieved international recognition for his work and was included in the 1968 "Word & Image" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Four years later MoMA mounted a solo exhibition of his graphic work organized by Mildred Constantine.

Regarding our friends in Japan, please go to http://blog.givewell.org/2011/03/11/japan-earthquaketsunami-disaster-relief-donations/ for information regarding Earthquake Relief efforts.

The Revolutionary

Title: The Revolutionary
Artist: Churches Advertising Network
Medium: Printed poster
Size: Various
Date: 1999
Location: Various

This arresting picture of Jesus as a revolutionary, imitating the style of the famous image of 1960s revolutionary Che Guevara, was produced as an advertising poster encouraging people to go to church during Easter 1999. This poster image was produced by the Churches Advertising Network – an ecumenical charity, whose executive team comprises senior communications officers from the Anglican, Methodist, Baptist and URC churches; from the Catholic newspaper The Universe, and from the Church Army and Evangelical Alliance an independent group of UK Christian communicators. More of their work can be found on their website http://www.churchads.net/

One of the group, Peter Owen Jones, describes seeing the design for the poster, “We have a picture of Christ cast in the same pose as Che Guevara... as a piece of communication which is trying to say this man was a revolutionary – a spiritual revolutionary – it is simple and memorable”. Another member of the group which produced this version of Jesus said “Jesus was not crucified for being meek and mild. He challenged authority. He was given a crown of thorns in a cruel parody of his claims about proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Our poster has the most arresting picture our advertisers could find to convey all this – the image deliberately imitates the style of the well-known poster of Che Guevara.”

Peek-A-Boo Jesus

Title: Peek-A-Boo Jesus (AKA Lund's Corner Jesus)

Artist: Maki105

Medium: Wheat-pasted poster

Size: 180 x 78 cm

Date: 2009

Location: Premier Video, New Bedford, Massachusetts.

In the parking lot of Premier Video, a few days after street artist Maki105 placed a wheat pasted poster titled “Peek-A-Boo Jesus” on the side of the New Bedford, Massachusetts video store, dozens of Christians began flocking to the site. They came from miles around. They were young and old, sometimes three generations of a family in a car. There were blue-collar workers with their buddies, retirees, teenagers. They brought cameras and took pictures of each other near the figure of Christ. Some brought flowers, real and artificial, and some brought candles that flickered in their jars in the spring breeze.

Christ's enigmatic gesture — he is holding his hands over his eyes — stirred many of those into what was a fairly unanimous interpretation: that Christ had to close his eyes to the world today. A middle-aged couple in their car didn't get out, but rolled down the window enough for the man to say, "I don't know what to make of it," and for his wife to concur with the idea that Jesus can't bear to watch anymore.

Maki105, perhaps aiming for a more satiric depiction of Christ playing peek-a-boo, may have not anticipated the reaction his work garnered from the faithful. But the gesture of covering one’s eyes is a powerful one, and the association with a game of peek-a-boo is far from the first thing that pops into one’s mind. We may laugh at the irony of a piece of art meant to poke fun at Christianity has accidentally become a Christian shrine, but one still can see the validity in the pilgrims’ interpretation over the artist’s.

Among visitors to the site was a consensus that whoever created the image, he or she did a masterful job, and it ought to be left right where it is. The idea of people celebrating street art and wishing to preserve it is also unusual. Perhaps these pilgrims see something uncharacteristically touching and powerful in Maki105’s work (the complete opposite of the derisive sarcasm intended by the artist) and want it saved.