Hikari Shimoda’s “The Catastrophe of Death and Regeneration” at Asahi Art Museum.
Opening on Saturday, July 7th, 2018 at the Asahi Art Museum in Nagano, Japan is artist Hikari Shimoda’s mid-career survey of her artwork entitled, “The Catastrophe of Death and Regeneration.”
Shimoda arrived onto the international scene in 2014 with her U.S. exhibition “Fantastic Planet, Goodbye Man,” introducing her ongoing series entitled “Children of This Planet” and “Whereabouts of God,” which are highlighted throughout the exhibit. Themes presented in those works are cultivated and arranged into the exhibit’s centerpiece, entitled “The Catastrophe of Death and Regeneration,” a highly detailed collage mural that took several months to complete.
Her striking portraits of big-eyed children with a bruised complexion and sparkling slit throats have been described as macabre, even grotesque, masked with “happy” colors. Collages of cute stickers and glitter are added for sparkle effect. These roughed up heroes and heroines are the only hope for salvation of the dying modern landscape they inhabit, a netherworld bursting with problems as humanity struggles to cope with its imminent demise.
The exhibit is being hosted by Shimoda’s hometown museum, the Asahi Art Museum in Nagano, located in Japan’s beautiful countryside which has provided her with inspiration from the start. “It’s a place where I can think deeply and feel a quiet loneliness,” she explains. “I am still portraying feelings of loneliness and despair. We should put our eyes on every single piece of this world, share it and exchange opinions…this might prevent us from destruction and help us to make an important step forward for humanity.”
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