BLACK AND WHITE IN COLOR

Orly, Valerie photo courtesy Japan Society

Last week, while Jean was away on business, the Japan Society held a soiree entitled Provoke!: Black and White Party in honor of their current exhibition, For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968 - 1979.   With a name like Provoke!, who could resist?  (Provoke! was the very telling name of an "influential experimental art magazine of late 60s Japan".)

photo courtesy Japan Society

The invitation exhorted guests to show up wearing "their flashiest black and white attire" for an evening of bespoke sake cocktails, live music, dancing and a dj.

Brilliant idea!  It wouldn't be the first black and white themed party.  There have been several others in New York, but the best known, hands down, would be Truman Capote's 1966 talk of the town masked ball (click here for more on that), attended by anybody who was anybody, and most famously by Frank Sinatra.   The idea behind the masks was said to be to make everyone unrecognizable, so people would gravitate outside their usual circles of friends and talk with strangers.  You can see that Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow would have been completely unrecognizable to the other guests.

With Jean away, Valerie went with her friend Orly, in briefly from Israel.  Despite being here in travel mode, Orly had no problem doing a bang-up job of dressing in black and white.  Her white necklace is composed of large white lacquered papier mache nuggets.  The gent beside her is wearing a black and white shirt printed with mug shots.

Long-time (VERY long-time) readers will remember Orly's first appearance in this blog way back in 2009, when she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Having lost her hair during the treatment process, Orly integrated the clean-shaven look into her style, and was an inspiration to her fellow patients.  (You can also see our coverage of her milestone fifth anniversary party here.)  So it was an extra special treat to get together with her again and see her looking so glowing and joyous.

In keeping with the black and white theme, there were, among myriad other things, black and white napkins, black and white table cloths, black and white doughnuts,

photo courtesy Orly Ginossar

and black and white cookies.

photo courtesy Japan Society

But by far the very best black and white treat were the two black and white sake cocktails.  Orly photographed the ingredients of the amazing SHIRO, or white, cocktail: orange zest, cinnamon, anise, black and white sesame seeds and Kikusui Perfect Snow nigori sake, "garnished with a black sesame tuile", according to its creators, Chris Johnson and Warren Hode.

photo courtesy Orly Ginossar

Except for the fact that the sake was extremely potent, Valerie could have had quite a few of these.  As it was, it was clear she could only have one.  But what a great one it was!

photo courtesy Orly Ginossar

One of the draws of the evening was the black and white photo booth (room, really), where all the guests were invited to have their pictures taken.  Here are a few of them:

The self-censoring woman,

photo courtesy Japan Society

The Johnny Depp look-alike and his date,

photo courtesy Japan Society

The movie poster imitators,

photo courtesy Japan Society

The shy subject,

photo courtesy Japan Society

The woman in the glittering polka dot dress and her friend.

photo courtesy Japan Society

Here's Orly in the photo booth.

Not all the fun was happening in the photo booth.   This man had a wonderful pompadour.

And this woman added a splash of color to the Black and White Party.

We found a mirror on the ceiling, and, like most people, couldn't resist a selfie opportunity, regardless of how grainy and short it made us look.

Literally-minded readers will want to point out that the exhibition in honor of which the Black and White Party was held has not been mentioned at all.  That's because so much was going on outside the hushed confines of the exhibition (and also because, sensibly, no food or drink was allowed inside the exhibition), that it must be confessed we hurried through a show that one really should take one's time in.  The early post war period was a time of great struggle and social unrest in Japan, and is forcefully documented by courageous photographers who grappled with subjects which had until then been generally suppressed.  Below is a photograph by Miyako Ishiuchi, one of Japan's few female photographers.  Taken from her Apartment series, it documents substandard post-war living conditions.  Anyone interested in art, photography or Japan should see this traveling exhibition, which will only be up till January 10.

A splendid time was had by everyone at the Black and White Party, but particularly by us.

photo courtesy Orly Ginossar