Dr. Lakra, Untitled (Muscidae and Tea), 2007, ink on vintage colored postcard

Courtesy of the artist and Kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Teenage girls stroll the crowded streets of
Harajuku with flesh pierced, bound in corsets and dressed in bold frills, leather or lace. Whether kawaii, ominously weird or downright macabre, the Goth and Goth-Loli subcultures mix defiance, obsession, kitsch, metamorphosis and death—a cute but creepy lifestyle dredged from the Gothic art movement of the Middle Ages.

In the 21st century, Goth has re-emerged with deathly themes that are laced with distorted irony, the grotesque, and even humor. A fascinating exhibition of this imagery in contemporary form is now showing at the Yokohama Museum of Art. Titled “Goth: Reality of the Departed World,” the show includes roughly 250 works by five artists and one collective.

This is the first exhibition of its kind in Japan, and many of the works are making their debut. The lineup of Japanese contributors includes well-known video installation artist Tabaimo, transsexual self-portraitist Pyuupiru, and Goth fashion photographer Masayuki Yoshinaga. Arriving from Mexico is Dr. Lakra, originally a tattoo artist but now world-renowned for his drawings, bizarre objets and insect portraits. Rising art star Ricky Swallow, who represented Australia at last year’s Venice Biennale, shows his captivating wood carvings, bronze sculptures and watercolors of folk and rock musicians who died at a young age. Ingrid Mwangi and Robert Hutter, who live and work in Kenya and Germany, present a disturbing and forceful video performance commissioned by the museum.

Dr. Lakra, Untitled (man and woman, woman biting a Japanese towel), 2007, pigment on Japanese woodblock print

Courtesy of the artist and Kurimanzutto, Mexico City

The show begins with Swallow’s wood carving of a life-size human skull with large barnacle-like protrusions. Laid bare on the exposed concrete floor with no protection, the work, entitled Younger than Yesterday, comments on the fragility of life. “The skull is the tactile full stop, the most universal symbol of death,” says the artist, “and yet it walks and talks in every historic incarnation—from Dance of Death to The Grateful Dead.”

Lakra’s ukiyo-e woodblock prints of Japanese men and women covered with tattoo-like drawings are particularly provocative, funny and nearly sacrilegious— he created them by drawing directly on the originals, including one by famed Edo Period artist Kuniyoshi Utagawa.

Yoshinaga’s photographs, collectively titled “Goth-Loli (Goth Lolita),” are part of a year-long series he shot of 500 young people, mostly girls, on the streets of Tokyo and Osaka. Seen here—close-up and in your face—many of the kids look just plain weird; the comment “Kimochi warui!” was a common reaction among viewers. And yet, however bizarre or painstakingly cute, many of the costumes are brilliant, with extraordinary care put into every detail. The colored contact lenses, which turn the wearer’s eyes into a sea of red, yellow, blue and even spirals, add a freakish touch. The photographs are a fascinating portrait of an important subculture—iconic imagery of a generation playing at rebellion, caught between cute and cruel.

Ricky Swallow, The Exact Dimensions of Staying Behind, 2004-05, laminated limewood

Mr. Ebrahim Melamed/Honart Museum, Tehran, Iran

The show ends with Pyuupiru’s work, which includes a towering mannequin wearing a dramatic wedding dress. The arm and hand are raised, flicking the “F-you” middle finger that’s dripping with a solidified blood-like liquid.

But is this Goth or Gothic? No matter what we call it, the content, display and excellent bilingual catalogue make this groundbreaking show of the genre in Japan a celebratory birth of, well, death. What a Gothic concept.

Yokohama Museum of Art, through Mar 26. See exhibition listings (other areas) for details.