Wind 風

This is a work from the period Akasegawa was active as a member of the group "High-red Center" which he formed in 1963 with Natsuyuki Nakanishi and Jiro Takamatsu. At the time, Akasegawa had become dissatisfied with the usual art forms of painting and sculpture, and started employing "wrapping" in his works. This method goes back to his works shown in "the 15th Yomiuri Independent Exhibition" of March 1963. One was an object consisting of a canvas wrapped with paper and strings, and the other was an enlarged facsimile of the thousand yen bill. The facsimile bill was a product of the artist's absurd but pure passion for engaging in the senseless and punishable act of making a minutely done reproduction of a money bill. His will to cover the picture (or the surface) with something meaningless later extended to the three-dimensional world, and Akasegawa subjected such pieces of furniture and ordinary tools as chairs, briefcases, and pairs of scissors to his wrapping. When he wrapped a swinging electric fan, he was wrapping the invisible wind and turning it into a work. In the group exhibition "ROOM IN ALIBI" (Naika Gallery) of July 1963, another of his works, a wrapped radio, was shown, with the hidden radio receiving a broadcast. His works of wrapping are notable for their wit and humor.