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The Innocent World Within
An Exhibition of Japanese and Chinese Contemporary Art
10 – 14 September 2008 (Camden Medical Centre)
18 September – 5 October 2008 (Sunjin Galleries @chip bee gardens)
Asia, like much of the world, has produced a generation of Peter Pans, young adults who cling to their childhoods. They appear reluctant to let go and completely embrace the adult world, and nowhere does this become more apparent than in the work of many young Asian artists. Chinese-born artist Wu Qiong has already made a name for himself with his paintings, and more recently sculptures, reflecting his childhood. He rejected the negativity of the revolutionary turmoil in which he grew up, and chose instead to focus on the childhood games and pastimes he remembers with great joy.
In Japan, too, we find young artists who appear to have turned their backs on the trauma and cruelty of the modern world. They have looked inwards and found in the world of dreams, imagination and stories from their childhoods, the inspiration for their art. Hence Ryoji Suzuki creates prints of little people, the people that only children can see, looking in on the human world. Yuji Kanamaru makes paintings, like huge patchwork quilts, of the animals and animal scapes that children love, while Kenta Nakajima refers – through photography – more directly to the world of dreaming that young girls are drawn to. The world of the cute, which has become one of the defining aspects of Japanese culture, is brought out in the paintings of Yoshiko Irisawa.
To some, there is a disturbing quality about these almost infantile images that so many artists are creating. But there is also a very powerful message that seems to be coming through, a plea to those who have created such an ugly world that young people feel the need to retreat from it. Give us back the world of the child’s imagination and creativity, let the world become young.
Venue : Sunjin Galleries, 43 Jalan Merah Saga, #03- 62 Work Loft @ Chip Bee.
Tel/ Contact: 6738 2317/Jennifer Soen
Email: sales@sunjingalleries.com.sg
Exhibition dates: 18 September – 5th October 2008
To some, there is a disturbing quality about these almost infantile images that so many artists are creating. But there is also a very powerful message that seems to be coming through, a plea to those who have created such an ugly world that young people feel the need to retreat from it. Give us back the world of the child’s imagination and creativity, let the world become young.
Venue : Sunjin Galleries, 43 Jalan Merah Saga, #03- 62 Work Loft @ Chip Bee.
Tel/ Contact: 6738 2317/Jennifer Soen
Email: sales@sunjingalleries.com.sg
Exhibition dates: 18 September – 5th October 2008
