Poland’s feminist ‘Bison Ladies’ storm the Japanese artist’s Warsaw exhibition in solidarity with longtime model Kaori’s allegations of bullying
波兰女权主义者“野牛女郎Bison Ladies”占领日本艺术家荒木经惟的华沙展览现场，声援其长期模特Kaori指控他对她的欺凌
Nobuyoshi Araki, Untitled (Bodyscape), 1997. Courtesy: the artist and Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong 荒木经惟，无题（BODYSCAPE），1997。礼貌：艺术家和Ben Brown画廊，香港
The Japanese erotic photographer Nobuyoshi Araki has been hit by a #MeToo-inspired protest in Poland. Donning bison masks, members of feminist art collective Żubryce Mówimy Nie (Bison Ladies, We Say No) mounted a protest of the artist’s exhibition at Warsaw’s Raster Gallery, in solidarity with Araki’s long-time model Kaori who has claimed that he subjected her to exploitation.
Araki – well known for his photography of kinbaku-bi (Japanese rope bondage) and other forms of erotica – was accused by Kaori in April of several instances of mistreatment during their 16-year working relationship. Kaori was inspired by the #MeToo movement to speak out against Araki. She did not accuse him of sexual assault, but alleged emotional bullying.
荒木经惟以他拍摄Kibaku Bi（日本绳子捆绑）和其他形式的色情作品而闻名。今年四月，Kaori指控在16年的工作关系中被荒木经惟虐待过几次。Kaori对荒木经惟的指控来自 #MeToo运动给予的勇气。她没有指控他性侵，而是心理欺凌。
In a blog post, Kaori, who Araki called his ‘muse’, claimed that she was never given a professional contract while working with him. Her requests for privacy would regularly be ignored during photography shoots, and on a number of times, Araki failed to pay her. ‘He treated me like an object,’ Kaori wrote.
在一篇博客文章中，荒木经惟称Kaori为“缪斯”，声称自己在与他合作时从未得到专业合同，她要求的隐私权在摄影拍摄过程中也经常被忽视，有很多次荒木经惟都没有付钱给她。“他把我当成了一个物体，”Kaori写道。
Members of Żubryce Mówimy Nie, 2018. Courtesy: Żubryce Mówimy Nie
Araki’s works were included in Raster Gallery’s latest group exhibition ‘Foreign Bodies’. The Bison Ladies activists took over the gallery on 2 August, holding up signs protesting ‘sanctioning violence in art’. They released a statement claiming that Araki’s ‘visions of women are provocative and violent’, and condemning ‘those turning a blind eye to the abuse of employees and relatives just because it has been legitimized by the ‘professonalism’ of the perpetrators.’
野牛女活动家们于8月2日占领了光栅画廊，举起了抗议“制裁艺术暴力”的标语。她们发表了一份声明，声称荒木经惟对女性的看法是挑衅和暴力的，并谴责那些对雇员和亲属的被虐待视而不见的人，仅仅是因为他们被肇事者的“专业主义”合法化了。
Żubryce Mówimy Nie came together last year in response to Poland’s increasingly conservative political climate. Taking inspiration from US collective Guerilla Girls, they have taken on the national symbol of the bison in their staging of anonymous, feminist protests across the country.
FRIZE特稿 ARThing编译
