ABSTRACT
The dominant fame of Superflat art poses an issue about the rival claims of Aida Makoto who, in Japan, is often mentioned as the most representative artist to emerge during the 1990s. Edgy, erratic, and extraordinarily diverse in his production, Aida is often seen by even his most fervent admirers as an artist for domestic consumption only, too complex in his self-referential Japaneseness. In a traditional-style commercial note to accompany the works, which mimics precisely the ingenuous tone of Japanese corporate marketing, Aida explains how world food shortages necessitated the development of a range of artificially cultivated miniature edible girls, who can be served in a range of classical-style Japanese izakaya. As the funniest man in Japanese art and a much-loved vaudevillian mainstay of the inner Tokyo art world, many artists, curators, and students in Japan have been ready to follow Aida, despite the frequent bad taste and sometime duff works that pepper his catalogues.
