The Japanese zentai bodysuit fetish is gradually getting better known.
Here is a great way in which the originally little-known subculture can become something new.
Yuzuru Maeda is a Japanese artist living in Singapore. Despite the latter’s reputation for being strait-laced, Maeda has turned to zentai to create the Zentai Art Project, a series of video and dance works that use zentai motifs.
The video document a series of happenings with performers in Lycra suits, such as this one.
Some are more like strange music videos.
Maeda also outlines a nice history of zentai, including the materials of the suits and the special contribution of Marcy Anarchy in the 1980s.
We like this description a lot:
Zentai can serve as a proxy for human skin. It can have an alien or ethereal look. Unlike latex suits developed in the West, zentai is made from one piece of fabric and covers the entire body. It presents the nakedness of the body without actually exposing any part of it.
Okay, Maeda-san, now bring the Zentai Art Project back to Japan!
