Chim↑Pom: The Provocative Collective
Chim↑Pom Japanese art collective formed in 2005, consisting of members Ushiro Ryuta, Ellie, Yasutaka Hayashi, Okada Masataka, Inaoka Motomu, and Mizuno Toshinori. They are known for their immensely controversial works, taking the forms public art, performance art, installations and more.
Probably their most problematic work was titled "Making the Sky of Hiroshima PIKA!". "PIKA" is a Japanese onomatopoeia which translates to "FLASH". In this project, the collective had a plane skywrite the word "PIKA" above the skies of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, where the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945.
This ended up being broadcasted by all sorts of media, eventually leading to the group publicly apologizing at a press conference, and the cancellation of their Hiroshima exhibition. In March of 2009, they released their book "Why CanT We Make the Sky of Hiroshima PIKA'?", and held another exhibition, simply titled "HIROSHIMA!".
Today, they have shown their intentions for these works, and revealed that they worked together with bomb-survivor groups to create their project "Never Give Up", made up of picture frames washed up by the 2011 Japan tsunami.
Some other works of Chim↑Pom include "Super Rat" [2006], where they captured rats from the streets of Shibuya, and stuffed & dyed them to resemble Pikachu, "Black of Death" [2008] where tons of crows were gathered using a stuffed crow & making crow sounds, and "Love Is Over" [2013], where group member Ellie's wedding was held in the form of a what looked like a protest, with hundreds of people marching the streets to the infamous "LOVE" by Robert Indiana while celebrating.
Chim↑Pom is still active to this very day, with their next exhibition scheduled for October at the Mori Art Museum. View some of their crazy, provocative works above.
