Nara Yoshitomo “No Nukes (Untitled)” 2 Favorite 

An early representation of Nara’s strong stance against nuclear weapons, No Nukes is now synonymous with the antinuclear protest movement. The work is painted over a promotional poster for bossa nova musician Vinicius Cantuária’s Amor Brasileiro (1998) among other printed ephemera.

The Great East Japan Earthquake taking place on Mar 11 2011 shakes East Japan, generating a tsunami and an accident in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Coming face to face with the violence of nature and the pain and suffering of other people, these emotionally turbulent events have a tremendous impact on Nara’s life as an artist moving forward. Nara Yoshitomo uploaded this anti-nuclear poster to the internet, so that people could print it out at their local convenience store and take it to anti-nuclear demonstrations in Japan with his official approval. In July 2012, it became a powerful symbol when the artist allowed protesters to download a high-resolution image of the work to use as picket signs during one of Japan’s largest antinuclear protests. Dubbed “No Nukes Girl,” as many as one hundred thousand people gathered to rail against the government’s decision to restart two nuclear reactors in Fukui prefecture, many with this image in hand.