MONEY, TRAINS, AND GUILLOTINES: ART AND REVOLUTION IN 1960S JAPAN (THE PROCESS OF ART − excerpt by permission from Duke University Press, 2013)

Abstract

Akasegawa Genpei’s 1000-yen note project included both a hand-drawn, giant magnification of the 1000-yen note and single-sided, photomechanical reproductions of actual currency, printed life-size, in monochrome. The latter became the subject of state prosecution, using an 1895 statute against money imitation (not counterfeiting), which reduced the question of Akasegawa’s intent to simple criminality. In this excerpt, through a close examination of the artist’s contemporaneous short story, and of an invitation appearing on the back of the first printed notes, I demonstrate how Akasegawa’s money-related art encompasses concerns with the body, with microstructures of domination, and with the dangers and possibilities of an insurgent, political art.