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

We both died at the same moment Siliquaria armata
© » 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...

My Grandpa’s Route has been Forever Blocked
© » KADIST

Som Supaparinya

2012

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...

The Remixed Porcelain Sculptures of Penny Byrne
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

The remixed and altered porcelain sculptures of ceramicist Penny Byrne often have a political edge...

22022021, Yawnghwe Office in Exile
© » KADIST

Sawangwongse Yawnghwe

2021

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
© » KADIST

Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner

2018

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)
© » SLASH PARIS

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...

An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty
© » KADIST

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...

The future isn't what it used to be
© » 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...

Podcast 46: M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival 2018
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Podcast 46: M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival 2018 | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints September 5, 2018 Duration: 25 mins Chloe C...

Climate Protestor Charged For Defacing African American Civil War Memorial At The National Gallery Of Art
© » ARTSJOURNAL

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...

This App Makes It a Lot Easier to Be an Art Collector - via Hyperallergic
© » LARRY'S LIST

A new app offers anyone with a basic income the ability to purchase artworks worth up to $50,000 in installments....

Isabella Chiam: Cultivating Risks
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Isabella Chiam: Cultivating Risks | ArtsEquator Skip to content SMU students Caitlin Leong and Joy Lo interview Isabella Chiam about her gardening workshop, 'The Last Gardener', gaining insights into the risks and challenges that artists face in the creative sector...

Suspect in Brent Sikkema Murder Claims Ex-Husband Offered Money for Killing of Art Dealer
© » ARTNEWS

Suspect in Murder Case: Brent Sikkema's Ex Paid to Have Him Killed Skip to main content By Daniel Cassady Plus Icon Daniel Cassady Senior Writer, ARTnews View All February 12, 2024 1:37pm Brent Sikkema...

Cleveland, United States: Double Takes
© » KADIST

Double Takes: Historic and Contemporary Film + Video is an eleven-month exhibition program presented in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa), during their 50th anniversary year...

¿Quién medirá el espacio, quién me dirá el momento?, 1 (columna alfarero)
© » KADIST

Mariana Castillo Deball

2015

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...

Interview with Keisha Scarville
© » ASX

Interview with Keisha Scarville – AMERICAN SUBURB X Skip to content Keisha Scarville and I spoke via email to discuss her new book lick of tongue, rub of finger, on soft wound (MACK, 2023), which was shortlisted for the Aperture/Paris Photo First PhotoBook Award...

Japan’s trailblazing conductor Seiji Ozawa dies from heart failure at 88
© » 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...

Pranayama D
© » KADIST

Mika Tajima

2017

Mika Tajima’s Pranayama sculptures are built from carved wood and chromed Jacuzzi jets and are presented as artefacts...

Clark House Initiative, Bombay
© » KADIST

Clark House Initiative, Bombay was established in 2010 by Zasha Colah and Sumesh Sharma as a curatorial collaborative concerned with ideas of freedom...