4. How do postmodern “superflat structures” relate to cosplay?
Cosplay (costume and play) is a contemporary phenomenon and according to Mountfort (2018), it’s also part of something venerable. The term cosplay describes an action where a person preforms and portraits a fictional character (Hale, 2014), today cosplay reflects modern fandoms and their ability to create mass cultural engagement both online and offline (Mountfort, 2018). The person uses a costume and accessories to look like a character and uses their body to mimic postures, gestures and the language the specific character uses. Cosplay is a “somatic, material and textual practice.” (Hale, 2014).
Now how does the concept of superflat structures relate to cosplay? Firstly, let’s have a look at what superflat is. According to Favell (2011) superflat is a term used to describe a distinct type of Japanese art. Takashi Murakami used the word superflat to describe something that is naturally two dimensional, that instead of alluding to depth highlights its inner flatness (Beynon, 2012).
It began with a sculpture made by Murakami, the sculpture is called My Lonesome Cowboy and is described by Favell (2011) as “A naked cartoon boy with a big grin, enormous eyes and crazy hair … masturbating, a wild lasso of plastic semen filling the air around him.” The work stands as Japan’s most successful piece of art ever (Favell, 2011).
Superflat is inspired by the animation and comic culture in Japan and we see a lot of childlike paintings, toys and big instalments (Favell, 2011).
Cosplay relates to the structures of superflat because of how the audience is watching fragments of a two dimensional fictional/nonfictional character being performed by a cosplayer.
The cosplayer displays a performance either live or through photography, cosplay is a visually rich medium, but with no or little narrative and it is the lack of narrative content that makes it fit in within the superflat structures (Mountfort, 2018).
Sources:
Beynon, D. (2012) Superflat architecture: culture and dimensionality, in Interspaces : Art + Architectural Exchanges from East to West. The University of Melbourne, School of Culture and Communication. https://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30044887/beynon-superflatarchitecture-2012.pdf
Favell, A. (2011) Before and After Superflat A Short History of Japanese Contemporary Art 1990-2011. Blue Kingfisher Limited. https://www.adrianfavell.com/BASF%20MS.pdf
Hale, M. (2014). Cosplay: Intertextuality, Public Texts, and the Body Fantastic. Western Folklore. 73(1), 5-37. Retrieved October 3, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24550744
Mountfort 2018, Planet Cosplay (Bristol, UK: Intellect Books), Intro and Chapter 1
Mountfort 2018, Planet Cosplay (Bristol, UK: Intellect Books), Chapter 2
Pop Genres 2020 