Events
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Written by In the document
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Published: January 21 2017 |
AI KOWADA GALLERY is pleased to present "i(Ai)", an exhibition of an art work by a Naoki Award winning writer Kanako Nishi. This show is the first one to present Nishi's artistic output in the field of visual art, about which the novelist is as passionate as she is about her writing. Nishi has often drawn pictures for the front cover design of her books and the images have all contributed well to invite her readers to be immersed in the fictional world of her creation. She has also recently provided a front cover illustration for Kirara, the magazine at its request. The exhibit is a brand new mural installation covering the whole gallery walls, by which the artist intended to establish the visual equivalent of the final scene of her recent novel titled "i (Ai)". Nishi, who has never received a formal art education, boldly draws with pastel crayons on used cardboard picked up at local supermarkets. The color layers she creates with the medium give bright and strong impression as if they are the outbursts of energy from the creator's body and the spirit. One may relate her way of working with that of graffiti artists who freely expresses themselves with color spray cans in their hands. It has been observed that there is at the core of all Nishi's creative output a sense of a quest for a true self. As most explicit in "Good Bye!", her writings have always encouraged people in identity crisis who had lost their way to be just the way they are. This attitude of the writer is continuing in "i (Ai)", in which the main character named Ai, a Syrian girl adopted by a couple of an American and a Japanese struggles to gain her identity and spiritual liberty through the years in which the world faced the tragic events of: the 9.11, the Syrian Civil War and the Great East Japan Earthquake. The mural installation wrapping the whole gallery space in full 360°may well be recognized as fully revealing the writer/artist's true self. The experience of being immersed in this rich visual field promises pure bliss for both the fans of her books and those who have yet to experience her literary world. -- Kanako NISHI Received the aforementioned award"Naoki Award" with "Good Bye!" in 2015 had launched her career as a writer with "Aoi"(2004), after which she steadily increased the reputation as a writer through works such as "Tsutenkaku" and "Fukuwarai." which won the 2007 Oda Sakunosuke Prize and the 2013 Hayao Kawai Award in Literature respectively. "The Yellow Elephant" which was made into a film starring Aoi Miyazaki and Osamu Mukai has helped to increase her readers.
http://aikowadagallery.com/en/aikowadagallery/exhibition/2017/iai/
Information Provided by: AI KOWADA GALLERY
Period: January 21,2017 (Sat) 〜 February 5,2017 (Sun) Hours: 14-18 Closed: Open every day in the exhibition period. Venue: AI KOWADA GALLERY
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Last Updated on January 21 2017 |