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.
“We both died at the same moment” is a humorous observation of anthropomorphism, the attribution of human emotions to nature and animals...
The 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...
22022021, 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...
Anointed by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner and Dan Lin is a poem recital/video that addresses the American nuclear testing legacy in the Marshall Islands that occurred between 1946 to 1958 in Bikini and Enewetak Atolls...
Matthieu Laurette — Une rétrospective dérivée (1993-2023) — MAC VAL Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Matthieu Laurette — Une rétrospective dérivée (1993-2023) — MAC VAL Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Matthieu Laurette — Une rétrospective dérivée (1993-2023) Exposition Techniques mixtes Matthieu Laurette, Self-Portrait, 2014/2023...
Screening at 7pm at The Roxie In connection to his exhibition, Evidence of Things Not Seen at KADIST , photo-conceptual artist, Hank Willis Thomas selected these films as a homage to innovative and influential creators in the medium of film whose work supports social justice as well as explores contemporary notions of identity, race, history and a national legacy of resistance...
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...
Protester charged for defacing African American Civil War memorial at US National Gallery of Art Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Museums & Heritage news Protester charged for defacing African American Civil War memorial at US National Gallery of Art A climate activist with the group Declare Emergency has been taken into custody over a paint-smearing incident at the museum last year Torey Akers 9 February 2024 Share Declare Emergency affiliate Jackson Green during a protest at the National Gallery of Art on 14 November 2023 Courtesy Declare Emergency Jackson Green, an activist from Utah, has been arrested and charged with defacing a memorial to Black Civil War soldier at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, DC last autumn...
Taking 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...
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...
Mika Tajima’s Pranayama sculptures are built from carved wood and chromed Jacuzzi jets and are presented as artefacts...