HIKARI
2015 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
Aki Kondo
Hikari (Light) (2015) depicts a fantastical and wrenching story about Juneko, a terminally ill young woman who communicates with her lover, a painter, through a portrait of her produced shortly after her death. As Juneko becomes sicker, her hair begins to fall out, a symptom of her unnamed illness. As her condition deteriorates, the film toggles back and forth with the animated story of Mogeji, a white strand of hair inhabiting Juneko’s body who becomes anthropomorphized through Kondo’s animation and recounts his own story of mortality and loss. Although its love story is unabashedly sentimental, Hikari (Light) also responds to the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan and the national trauma it subsequently triggered. Reframed in this context, Juneko’s illness draws more unsettling allusions to the radiation poisoning experience by citizens living near nuclear reactors damaged during the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Throughout, the animated interludes function as their own counter narrative depicting that, despite its elements of the fantastic, metaphorically depicts a body in crisis. Hauntingly complex, Hiraki (Light) offers a powerful meditation on loss, disease, and the inexorable necessity for hope amidst trauma.
Aki Kondo utilizes animation, video, and mixed media to explore such varied topics as intimacy, loss, and the human body. Her work crosses multiple practices and frequently investigates the creative process as an object of study in and of itself, exploring how artistic mediums can communicate emotionally complicated narrative through expressive and resonant images. Her animation work is especially unconventional, and while her characters often appear fantastical, they invariably tell far more serious stories than their cartoonish form would suggest.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Trevor Yeung
2014“We both died at the same moment” is a humorous observation of anthropomorphism, the attribution of human emotions to nature and animals...
© » KADIST
Som Supaparinya
2012The flat, wide river holds on its surface a tour-boat of memories, as Som Supaparinya documents her Grandfather’s return via cruise to familiar territories in rural Thailand that were submerged after the Thai government installed a series of dams...
© » KADIST
Rossella Biscotti
In a broader sense, the meaning of ‘blackout’ —primarily an electrical failure or momentary interruption, opens up to new organizations, perceptions and different ways of experiencing time and space...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
In pictures: Art Basel in Miami Beach's Meridians section features big works tackling big topics Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Art Basel in Miami Beach 2023 feature In pictures: Art Basel in Miami Beach's Meridians section features big works tackling big topics Curator Magalí Arriola picks out some highlights from the fair's large-scale presentation Elena Goukassian 9 December 2023 Share Lee Mullican, Entrance of the Entertainers (1984-85) Liliana Mora Although this year’s Meridians section at Art Basel in Miami Beach lacks an official theme, many of its large-scale works reference some sort of metaphorical largeness—whether global connectivity, the environment or the universal language of music...
© » KADIST
Discover the full program Nouf Aljowaysir, Carlos Amorales, Eric Baudelaire, Sofia Crespo, Mathew Dryhurst, Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, Holly Herndon, Ho Rui An, Agnieszka Kurant, Juan Obando The Centre Pompidou and KADIST are launching a three-year collaboration to explore artificial intelligence and text-to-image technologies, and how they will impact the field of artistic creation and production...
© » KADIST
Mariana Castillo Deball
2015Taking archaeology as her departure point to examine the trajectories of replicated and displaced objects, “Who will measure the space, who will tell me the time?” was produced in Oaxaca for her exhibition of the same title at the Contemporary Museum of Oaxaca (MACO) in 2015...
© » KADIST
Sawangwongse Yawnghwe
202122022021, Yawnghwe Office in Exile by Sawangwongse Yawnghwe belongs to a body of work made in response to the Myanmar military coup that began in February 2021...
© » SLASH PARIS
Matthieu Laurette — Une rétrospective dérivée (1993-2023) — MAC VAL Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Matthieu Laurette — Une rétrospective dérivée (1993-2023) — MAC VAL Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Matthieu Laurette — Une rétrospective dérivée (1993-2023) Exhibition Mixed media Matthieu Laurette, Self-Portrait, 2014/2023...
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Japan’s trailblazing conductor Seiji Ozawa dies from heart failure at 88 | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Japan + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more Former director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa conducts during a rehearsal on November 26, 2008...