Following report full of photographs features opening reception of fine art group exhibition held on July 22, 2006 (Sat) at Sideshow Gallery in Brooklyn, New York with circus sideshow gaffs created by Takeshi Yamada. This manuscript was produced by Dr. Eriko N. Bond, noted art critic and book author in New York City, as told by Yamada. Photographs featured in this article were taken by Yamada and his friends at the reception.     The 9th Annual Mermaid Show at Sideshow Gallery Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, New York July 22 – August 6, 2006     Artifact of the Dreamland Fire of 1911: Coney Island Mermaid World     The 9th Annual Mermaid Show July 22 – August 6, 2006 Opening reception: July 22, 6-9pm Group fine art exhibition Curated by Carri Skoczek Sideshow Gallery      319 Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211   Background Sideshow Gallery was founded by Richard Timperio in 1999. This large commercial gallery was named “sideshow” by the owner because the location of this “show” is “the other side” of the Manhattan (with many galleries) across the river. This is the first gallery established in the area called Williamsburg. The area’s past cultural ties differ greatly from the current ones. In the past, the area was strongly blue-collar. Now, it is becoming a major art center. The gallery owner himself is an abstract painter. The gallery has mainly been representing contemporary non-representational (abstract) artworks. (www.sideshowgallery.com)   Note: Williamsburg is a neighborhood in northern Brooklyn, New York City. It is connected to the East Village and Lower East Side in Manhattan by the Williamsburg Bridge over the East River. Williamsburg is home to many ethnic groups, a thriving art community, and, increasingly, a preponderance of yuppie commuters. Many consider Williamsburg to Brooklyn is like SOHO/Chelsea to Manhattan.   The 9th Annual Mermaid Show is the latest art exhibition produced and directed by Carri Skoczek, a noted Brooklyn artist. The location of the show changes every year. Previously, the show was held at Holland Tunnel Gallery, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Coney Island Museum and etc. Undertaking annual Mermaid Show has been a passion of Skoczek.   Takeshi Yamada has been the part of the mermaid show since 2002. Following website by Sideshow World features some of Yamada’s artworks shown at the previous mermaid shows such as Fiji Mermaid #1, Princess Otohime, Warrior’s Ceremonial Masks, and Coney Island Brand Canned Animals, and Artifacts collected at Dreamland Fire of 1911 in Coney Island: Coney Island Mermaid World, and etc.   http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html   Here is what Carri Skoczek wrote about the behind the state stories of her producing annual Mermaid Shows in her letter to Takeshi Yamada,  dated August 8, 2006.   Takeshi   here's a little blurb on the mermaid show   10 years ago I saw my 1st mermaid parade.  I was thrilled.  the following year I was running  the Right Bank Gallery in Williamsburg and started the 1st mermaid show.  it was like pulling teeth getting people to participate.  as the years went by the show grew by word of mouth, and now I have people from across the country wanting to participate.  this year there was a young guy who came up from Mexico city to participate.  the work has broadened in scope over the years as well, which I think keeps making it better.    I also have participated in the mermaid parade.  the first year of the show I won my first prize (3rd place) for my "codfish couture costumes," which included the first ever "metro card mermaid" that was me. the MTA sent me 1,000 cards after I submitted a drawing of what I wanted to do.  I have since won 1st place twice, one for "the black sea mermaid" and most recently "my big fat deep sea wedding"   hope that helps! let me know if you need more info and thanks again for your participation and doing this article   cheers, Carri   Show Announcement Card    (front & back) designed by Carri Skoczek   July 22, 6-9pm: Grand Opening Reception     For this year’s annual Mermaid Show, 82 artworks by 61 artists were featured. The price range was from $100 to $5000. Historically speaking, the Mermaid Show has been featuring unusually large numbers of artists submitting three dimensional artworks unlike other fine art exhibitions commonly held throughout the New York City. There are also many experimental-looking challenging artworks at the show such as such as giant puppets, huge installation artworks, neon light box artworks, kinetic movable sculptures, kinetic sculpture using fan to send airs, interactive sculptures encouraging people to move the handle to move the body of mermaids, and etc. Needless to say, not all the artworks are representational. In addition, due to the nature of the subject matter of the mermaid (naked woman with a fish tail), although there are not many but some of the artworks representing the mermaid artworks on display there at the gallery could be considered as R-rated, NC-17-rated and even X-rated. There were no courtesy signs stated the show is for adult only. After all, this show was never intended for adult only art show. (Before moving to New York City, Yamada created a series of artworks to participate in big scale adult only fine art exhibitions. It was a series of nationally traveling shows entitled “Sextablos: Works on Metals”. Yamada created a series of erotic hybrid creatures - similar to the concept of Fiji mermaid -  which could be considered as circus sideshow gaff artworks. This will be covered in the future articles.)   Yamada’s giant Fiji Mermaid and three framed mixed media artworks are on display among other artists’ mermaid subject artworks show in this photograph. Note that some artworks are quite large.     Takeshi Yamada and large his Fiji mermaid were center of people’s attention. Yamada and his Fiji mermaid were photographed by over a dozen of people including several independent photographers and photo journalists. The taxidermy of Fiji mermaid – the embodiment of the classical circus sideshow - still has such a power to shock, amaze, and attract people even today’s young adults in the heart of New York City.   Yamada started wearing tuxedo, black tie and dozens of New Orleans Mardi Gras Beads to attend his first solo art exhibition at the Louisiana State Museum in French Quarter area of New Orleans, Louisiana in 1990. His 3-month long fine art exhibition of 48 paintings on canvases is entitled “Divine Comedy: New Orleans Mardi Gras”. Yamada was awarded by the Mayor of the New Orleans “Key to the City” and “Honorary Citizenship” at the opening reception of his solo show. Yamada says, “I used to live in New Orleans and tuxedo and black ties are essential to go to carnival balls there. The Mardi Gras beads I wear express my love for culture and people of New Orleans, and I want to bring their high spirits to this city. These pearl beads represent the joy of life, the spirit of the festival and of art as the highest form of entertainment. My birth month stone is also a pearl. Wearing pearl beads on the mermaid show is just perfect”.     Takeshi Yamada’s six feet-long half-mummified Fiji mermaid. It took almost three months for the master artist to complete this masterpiece. This is the second Fiji mermaid Yamada created and exhibited at the annual Mermaid Show. Yamada’s four feet long Fiji mermaid was shown at Williamsburg Art & Historical Center and Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition gallery in Brooklyn, New York in the past.   In Japan, for many centuries, Ningyo (mermaid, “human-fish”) or Iso-onna (mermaid, “rocky beach’s woman”) are considered as one of the sea goddess, and there is even Ningyo Shinko or wide spread religion of worshipping mermaid there.   At the circus sideshow exhibitions, traditionally, many artifacts and specimens are displayed with their descriptions for the audience. With this in mind, here is what Yamada described about this mermaid.   MERMAID   Other Common Names: Mingo (“human-fish” in Japanese) Latin Name: Mermaidicus japonicus ningyo Specimen collected by: Takeshi Yamada, Brooklyn, New York, USA Origin: Shikoku, Japan Date: circa 1868 AD (The first year of the Meiji era) Size:  70x14x6 inch Description of the specimen: This well preserved specimen of half mummified mermaid was acquired through the local government in 1868 AD during Meiji Ishin in Japan, as one of the international cultural exchange programs to save and propagate traditional Japanese culture in the United States.  The Meiji Ishin (Meiji Restoration) is a chain of events that led to a change in Japan’s political and social structure.  It occurred from 1866 to 1869, a period of 4 years that transverses both the late Edo (often called Late Tokugawa Shogunate) and beginning of the Meiji Era.  Due to the drastic government policy called Haibutsu Kishaku (“throw out Buddha and overthrow Shakyamuni”), many Buddhist artifacts were destroyed. Haibutsu Kishaku was an anti-Buddhist movement enforced by the Meiji government that led to the destruction of Buddhist temples and images to “catch-up with the advanced/civilized Western civilization”.  The Haibutsu Kishaku was completely abolished in 1945 when World War II ended with Japan’s unconditional surrender. Specifically, this adult mermaid was originally part of a collection of mermaids enshrined at the prestigious Buddhist temple, Yasaka-ji (“Eight Slopes of Buddhist Temple”) at the Yasaka mountain of Shikoku island of Japan.  Shikoku Island is the fourth largest island in Japan.  The temple is huge and has a great main pavilion, Goma-Dou (“Sesame Hall”). A variety of large and small mummified mermaids are enshrined and worshipped as deities at the main pavilion.  A stone statue of a mackerel is enshrined in a small hall to be worshipped as a deity there as well.  This Buddhist temple is one of the Shikoku 88 Kasho Reiji (The Eighty-eight Sacred Temples of Shikoku). There are 108 such sacred Buddhist Temples in Shikoku.  Ningyo Shinkou (Faith/religion of worshipping mermaids) can also be found in numerous Asian countries such as China, Korea, Japan, and Thailand even today.  In Japan, not only Buddhist temples but also some of the Shinto shrines enshrine the mermaids as one of their deities (including white snakes and foxes) to be worshipped.  Shinto is the Japanese-originated national religion.       The photograph above shows details of the Fiji mermaid by Takeshi Yamada. This is a monumental taxidermy with extremely fine details by the hands of the master taxidermy artist. Note the intricate scales resemble those of the prehistoric fish covering not only her lower body but also the rest of her body except the frontal portion of her face. Her long entangled hairs resemble the massive hair-like objects attached to the mysterious object washed up at beaches called “mermaid’s purse”, which is an egg case of the common ray. This half mummified taxidermy looks almost “natural”.  Nevertheless, in reality, this artwork does not contain any body parts of any real fish of any kinds at all. This is not something new to the world of contemporary professional taxidermy. Today, in fact, most saltwater fish (as well as many cold water fish) are entirely recreated from man-made materials. Most of the taxidermists today specialize in fiberglass reproduction mounts. Lots of studios will no longer do a skin mount, and that number is quickly increasing. Some taxidermy schools that taught skin mounts exclusively in the past, teach replica building exclusively now. The artist's air brush becomes the most important part of the mount. Technological innovation has encouraged changes in the fish taxidermy profession. Fish taxidermy is the one area of wildlife art where the artist must totally recreate the colors of the skin all over the animal. Among professionals, it is generally agreed that the most difficult branch of taxidermy is fish mounting. In short, today’s salt water fish taxidermy is super realism life-size fine art sculpture. For more information on this subject in great details, please go to the following website page. http://sideshowworld.com/TYSuperR.html)   Yamada and his three framed mixed media artworks on papers (14x11 inch) on display near his Fiji mermaid.          Two Mermaid Princesses                                                Mermaid Princess and the Horseshoe Crab      Mermaid Princess with the Head Dress         Yamada’s original horseshoe crab telson dipping pen   Yamada’s series of artworks (set of three) shown here entitled “Mythology of the Mermaid Princess and the Horseshoe Crab” were exhibited at Sideshow Gallery for this year’s Mermaid Show. (Each artwork is 11x8.5 inch with traditional 14x11 inch gold frame.)  The mixed media drawings (color pencils and pen & ink drawing on color paper) were created mainly with the telson (sword-like sharp tail) of the horseshoe crab as dipping pen as seen in the right.   According to the Urashima-taro (Tale of Urashima Taro), which is one of the most famous Japanese folk tales, Otohime (Princess Otohime) is a Chinese dragon king’s daughter living at the Ryugu (Dragon’s Palace) at the bottom of the Ocean. The Chinese dragon king represent the vitality of life, good of the world, mighty military force, and this magnificent animal protect the Chinese emperors for generation. The Chinese dragon king is considered to be the ruler of the sea, equivalent to Neptune in the Greek mythology. This makes Chinese dragon king’s daughter Otohime the princess of the sea equivalent to the mermaid princess.  In Japan, based on the Buddhist doctrine of Rinne Tensei (reincarnation of life), the horseshoe crabs are considered the reincarnation of Japanese samurai warriors who sacrificed their lives at battles during the Japanese Civil War and major battles in Setonaikai (Inland Sea). With these reasons, therefore, it was natural for Takeshi Yamada, who was also born into a respectable house of samurai warriors (samurai’s military government ruled Japan during 1333 and 1868), to use the body of the horseshoe crabs as the symbol of mighty samurai warrior’s power and strength for the portrait pictures of the daughters of the Chinese dragon king.     In 2002, shortly after purchasing a house by the Coney Island Beach in Brooklyn, New York, Yamada started collecting numerous carcasses of horseshoe crabs there and painted over dozens of Japanese samurai warrior masks on them based on the Japanese mythology of the horseshoe crab. He also started using their body parts as art supplies in 2002. He wrote “, I have produced a series of intricate pen and ink drawings on papers using a dead horseshoe crab’s telson (sword-like tail) as a dipping pen.  I found it is truly a remarkable tool despite the fact that other artists have totally ignored using it in this creative capacity” in his book entitled Homage to the Horseshoe Crab.  In the previous years, Yamada also I painted portraits of Mermaid Princess Otohime of the Dragon's Palace on the back of horseshoe crabs as well as portrait of noble Samurai warriors.  The warrior designs are inspired by Kabuto and Haniwa (clay figures buried with the emperors and kings of ancient Japan). Yamada created over 300 artworks (sculptures, oil paintings on canvases, mixed media drawings on papers, pen and ink drawings on papers, tribal costumes, jewelry artworks, poems, fine art public performances, and etc.) inspired by the horseshoe crab. Yamada also won the King Neptune award and medallion for his home made horseshoe crab warrior costume at the annual Mermaid Parade on June 21, 2003.     Some of Yamada’s horseshoe crab inspired artworks are featured in the website by the Ecological Research & Development Group, Inc. with great details. The ERDG, founded in 1995, is a 501(c)3 non-profit wildlife conservation organization whose primary focus is the conservation of the worlds remaining four species of horseshoe crab. Takeshi Yamada has been one of the most active advisory boards of directors of this prestige wildlife conservation organization since 2002. Yamada is also the advisory board of director of Delaware Horseshoe Crab research Institute, which also hosts a museum. (As an artist, Yamada is also a board of director of Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition.)  http://horseshoecrab.org/poem/feature/takeshi.html   Yamada also exhibit his series of artworks to bring up people’s awareness about importance of the wildlife conservation efforts internationally. (Who with the right mind could have ever imagined the circus sideshow to be used for wildlife conservation activities at established mainstream wildlife conservation organizations before Yamada?) Yamada believes that the Japanese mythology of the mermaid can be one of the leading forces to protect wildlife and improve our environment. The newsletter below shows his recent recognitions and award. Estuary News, Newsletter of the Partnership of the Delaware estuary, 2004, Volume 14, Issue 3, page 6 features articles about its awarding Takeshi Yamada “Artistic Impression” plaque "for his tireless work to protect the Delaware Estuary’s horseshoe crab population."     Despite the occasional rain shower, due to the ceaseless traffic of the large number of people coming to see the show at night, the opening reception of the mermaid show was extended until 10:30pm. This photograph shows the entrance of the Sideshow Gallery with people gathered on the occasion of this very special annual art exhibition. Note the giant graffiti artworks rendered on the wall of the gallery. There are many large murals (often with spray cans) rendered at walls in this area commissioned and created by noted artists for grocery stores, cafes, bagel shops etc. Some of them are actually masterfully persecuted with extremely trained eyes, skills and heart. Street graffiti still lives in Williamsburg today.   People gathering at the entrance of the Sideshow Gallery in the evening of the opening reception of the Mermaid Show.    Graffiti on the wall of the Sideshow Gallery (day)     END   Copyright by Takeshi Yamada, Museum of World Wonders, Brooklyn, New York, 2006 Special thanks to Sideshow Gallery. Also special thanks to Carri Skoczek, Eriko N. Bond, Diane, M. Taros, George Brock.