Human-Headed Kite Is Charged With Plagiarism in Taipei
(Yicai Global) June 21 — A Taiwan-based curating company flew a thrilling ‘human-headed kite’ in the sky over Taipei as a promotion for an upcoming exhibition commemorating the works of famed Japanese horror mangaka (cartoonist) Junji Ito. This promotional activity drew wide attention on major social media in Southeast Asia, but a young Chinese artist Lu Yang claimed this sensational kite infringes her work.
Ito is honored as a contemporary horror manga master, and the face of the ‘head kite’ floating in the sky above Taipei is that of the leading character of his masterwork Tomie. The promotion thus achieved a considerable advertising effect, with the 10,000 early bird tickets to the experiential exhibition in his honor soon selling out.
Chinese artist Lu Yang alleged on June 10 on her Weibo account that the human head kite used to promote the Junji-Ito-themed exhibition in Taiwan plagiarizes her work. She presented evidence supporting her claim to media — including her original kite — as well as screenshots of the negotiations between her and the Taipei-based curator on licensing.
The Taiwanese curator approached her at the start of the year and expressed appreciation of her work and said he wished to borrow it after modifying the content but maintaining the form, she told Yicai Global in an interview. The curator made no reply when Lu asked if there would be commercial cooperation.
The curator of the exhibition is Taiwanese firm Inception Cultural & Creative, her materials show.
Lu was incensed by the commercial institution’s disregard of her copyright, explaining that had this Taiwanese curator made issues clear from the very start, including the cooperation model, the amount of licensing fees, and the publicity for the collaborative work, and had the curator displayed a respectful attitude, she would have been glad to forge cooperative ties. Yicai Global received no reply from the curator even after publishing a corresponding article.
Baleful Balloons
1963-born Japanese mangaka Junji Ito is adept at creating a horrible atmosphere through realistic description. Among his most famous works, the long serialized Tomie and the short manga The Hanging Balloons find special favor for their distinctive figure portrayals.
In The Hanging Balloons, a good friend of the leading character commits suicide, and that night a balloon identical to the deceased’s head floats into the sky. Another friend of the leading character accidentally becomes entangled in a noose into which the balloon string is tied and is hanged. After he dies he forms into another human-headed hangman balloon. Soon the sky above the entire city fills with these hunter-killer heads.
With bold imagination founded on actual criminal cases that became sensationalized and grew and warped in the telling, Ito created the great horror thrillers that reflect his critical view of humanity.
Junji-Ito-themed exhibitions have made a splash in Beijing and Shanghai and many other places in the past two years, achieving a ripple effect on social networks.
Lu, born in 1984, took part in the China pavilion of the 56th Venice Biennale. She deftly depicts the angst and self-reflection of young people growing up in cities via multimedia, animation software and animations embellished with religious elements.
Her Delusional Mandala: Tame Head Kite debuted in Shanghai K11 in 2016 in a video format. Scanning her face to form a 3D model, Lu became the heroine of the computer animation, which probed topics of consciousness, brain and body. The face in this video became the image on her kite.
Death Dreams
Lu often experienced childhood dreams about her death in which she floated disembodied in the sky over Shanghai overlooking the material universe with a mix of misery and joy. Inspired by the folk ‘Tame Head’ voodoo dolls used in witchcraft in Southeast Asia and Africa, she imagined her head being able to detach itself from her body and created her Tame Head Kite based on this vision.
This work went on display successively in exhibitions in Interstitial in Seattle, Washington, the US, Sadie Coles HQ gallery in London, UK, Zou-No-Hana Terrace in Yokohama, Japan, Nijojo, Kyoto, Japan, Societe art gallery in Berlin, M Woods in Beijing, China and at the Spiral Garden in Omotesando, Tokyo, Japan.
Let us hope Lu manages to ‘hang’ onto her copyright.
Editor: Ben Armour
