The Shameful Chrysan-themum

In this book, two images are superimposed. One is a part of a chest of a 19th-20th century Japanese leader. The other is a close-up of anus.

The leaders of the time wore proudly the Japanese legion of honour, made after the Legion d'Honneur of Napoleon, overflowing on their chests. Importing colonialism and expansionism from the West, they led a foolish invasion in Asia.

By the way, some of the Japanese Legion d'Honneur were designed from the chrysanthemum flower, the signature of the Emperor family. The chrysanthemum flower at the same time metaphor to the anus, in Japanese slang of certain communities.

In this book Sayo wanted to ask which chrysanthemum is more shameful, overlapping the two images: These badges or a part of our body? The book was published for an exhibition "The shameful chrysanthemum" at Nothing Space in Bergen, Norway, and printed at Pamflett in Bergen, Norway.

  • Sayo Senoo is a contemporary Japanese artist born in 1977, now living and working in Paris. After studying phenomenology at University of Tokyo (Japan), she studied contemporary art at Musashino Art University (Japan) and Université Paris 8 (France). Her works have been exhibited in various galleries and cultural centres, including La Maison de la Culture du Japon (Paris in 2008), la Galerie Bansard (Paris in 2010), and Lagalerie, (Paris in 2011). In November 2019, she received the Paul-Louis Weiller Award for sculpture from the prestigious Academy of Fine Art in Paris. She started her publishing activity in 2019, both to document her ephemeral works, and as a creative medium in itself. All the books and objects are delicately hand-made by the artist, and in limited edition. Some are available at Librairie Mazarine (Paris), Librairie Yvon Lambert (Paris) and 本\hon\books (Paris). Her publication " Lands that shed tears" (2019) is represented on the shortlist for the National Gallery of Victoria’s International Cornish Family Prize for Art and Design Publishing 2020 (Melbourne, Australia).