The contemporary artist Shinro Ohtake has established a creative style in which he puts paint on to things found in his daily life, such as pinups, and produces collage books. Despite this, what he has created this time was a “living space” - a bath house.
     The word “public bath” would usually inspire us with images of Japanese-style things, such as temples, shrines or paintings of Mount Fuji which are often found on the walls of public baths. Nevertheless, the bath house, “I♥湯”, designed by Ohtake in Naoshima, Kagawa Prefecture, this July gave us a completely different impression. On the roof above the entrance, there is a sign showing a silhouette of a glamorous female body, and on the green and yellow wall around the building, there are a number of collages, such as photos of elephants and pinups of women. In addition, the wall of the building is covered with a part of a quarterdeck, tropical plants, and Indonesian tiles on which patterns have been drawn, creating the impression of being in a hot and bustling tropical land.
     At first glance, the building seems to have been created by the accumulation of trivial things. Nonetheless, after having looked at it for a while, we can see that it is composed of things ｓｅｌｅｃｔed by Ohtake from his perspective as an artist. Actually, this creation was not made by Ohtake alone. The creative unit graf was in charge of the construction of the building and Makoto Azuma arranged the plants put around it. Thus, “I♥湯” can be said to be a collaborative work. Furthermore, the painting of Mount Fuji drawn on the wall at the back of the building was drawn by the painter, Morio Nakajima. Nevertheless, the overallconcept of the whole work was produced by Ohtake. The best part of this public bath is that everyone can enter into Ohtake’s world empty-handed.

     I would like to describe the inside of this bath house briefly. Let me introduce the women’s bath. Around the wash stand in the changing room, there are the pictures of creatures living in the sea, and images of young women swimming in the sea in skimpy swimwear are shown on the monitor embedded in the black benches. Entering the bath room, an almost life-sized elephant statue with its long nose trailing down has been placed on the wall separating the male and female baths. At the bottom of the bathtub in the center of the bathroom, the pinups of women and pages taken from old books can be seen under a clear board. On the wall behind the bathtub, there are a number of tile paintings (they are not so-called paintings). They were drawn using motifs of fishes, shellfish and women. The lower part of the wall is made of glass, which makes it possible for us to notice that tropical plants are arranged in the space above the wall. The bath room is filled with animals of various sizes, which give us a sense of vitality. Indeed, it provides us with a comfortable “living space”.
     Nonetheless, there is a moment when we are conscious of not only “life” but “gender” in this space. This is when we look at other people sitting on the little stools at the washing space, while we are in the bathtub. In other bath houses, we often see that regular customers always use the same positions in bath rooms. This is because there is an unspoken understanding among users such as, “This is the place for him”. The washing space in “I♥湯” was created taking advantage of this. Under the taps, namely, beneath the board on which you can find soap and other items - i. e., under our feet - we find such characters as Kokotsu (ecstasy), Joji (romance) and Toshiue (seniority) drawn on the tiles. Whilst washing ourselves in such a space, we cannot read them since they are hidden under the board. Nevertheless, while we are in the bathtub is in the center of the bathroom, it is interesting to note that each character seems to refer to the person who happens to be sitting there. Personally, as a woman, words such as these made me conscious of men’s eyes.

     The space of this female bath is occupied by not “women” but by a man, Ohtake. While in the bathtub, at the bottom can be seen the materials ｓｅｌｅｃｔed by Ohtake, a kind of eroticism is generated as if my body is feeling his life. This is a different sensation from that which I experience when I am relaxing in bathtubs in other public baths or hot springs. In other words, there is no feeling of accepting everything about myself, nor any sense of relief akin to a kind of return to the inside of my mother’s womb. Probably, some kind of homosexual atmosphere which we often feel in other “women’s baths” would never be generated in “I♥湯”. When we share bathtubs in public baths with other women of various generations, such as those who seem to be a similar age to my grandmother, mother, younger sister and child, I always feel as if they are not separate or ‘other’ even though there is no hereditary link among us. It can be said that these places are common spaces where we recall our childhoods by seeing children as well as imagining the future as we consider those older than ourselves. Nevertheless, in “I♥湯”, my perspective of people of the same gender becomes different. I’m forced to look at my surroundings through the viewpoint of a person of the opposite sex - Ohtake’s perspective. In other words, this is a space where we encounter the artist, Ohtake himself, rather than a place that we can share with other customers.
     In addition, while soaking in the bathtub, at the bottom of which, a number of pinups have been pasted, we come to develop the illusion that our bodies have become incorporated into one of his collage creations. Then, at a certain moment, we notice that we ourselves are seen by others and that there is a strange paradox that we are a part of “I♥湯” and, conversely, that “I♥湯” is incorporated in ourselves without realizing. The world of “I♥湯”, which, at first, made me feel as if it belonged to another person, Ohtake, has been already shared among us, the viewers, before I know it.

     Thus a new-style public bath has been born on this warm island from which the sea can be seen in every direction.
(Translated by Nozomi Nakayama)