Event
Date:April 14 – June 4, 2022
Hours:11:00am – 3:00pm / Fri & Sat & May 3, 4 11:00am – 7:00pm
Closed:Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed (Open by appointment) / Specially open on May 3 (Tue) & 4 (Wed)
Admission:Free
http://www.hrdfineart.com/exb-iga22-e.html
Venue
HRD Fine Art
http://hrdfineart.com/top-e.html
Access:494-1 Kamigoryo-tatemachi, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto 602-0896 Japan
Tel:090-9015-6087
Overview
Introduction
HRD Fine Art is delighted to announce the opening of a solo exhibition of Miwako Iga, titled “Narrative & Non-Narrative,” which will be on view from April 14th through June 4th. Awarded the New Cosmos of Photography Prize as early as in 1999, Iga’s photographic works have been highly acclaimed in Japan and abroad alike. Recently Iga has started producing painting and drawing as well, expanding her creative range. This show will be the artist’s first ever solo exhibition in Kyoto, and it is also an affiliate program of “KG+ 2022,” a satellite event of “Kyotographie International Photography Festival.”
Miwako Iga was born in Tokyo in 1966. In her trademark photographic work, Iga uses small, mass-produced toys and dolls as well as props that she handmakes herself. Like a stage director, she constructs dramatic scenes rich in narrative allusions, or absurd spectacles seemingly devoid of meaning, and photographs them. Her work, which can be categorized both as a kind of staged photography and as a variant of ready-made, draws inspiration from her childhood memory of watching cheap, primitive chroma-key images on TV and in the movies. Thus, her works can look virulent, comical, or strangely realistic.
In this exhibition she presents the latest series of works that are based on famous Japanese novels and other literature works, as well as some older works from the series called “Playthings” that depict messed-up dolls and toys without apparent narrative quality. Thus, by juxtaposing the dolls that play their part and those that don’t, Iga brings the viewers to a realm where reality and fictitiousness blend together in a complex manner.
Are our lives “narrative” or “non-narrative”? Miwako Iga’s work causes us to ponder over this question. In her work, various thoughts on human life are intertwined with each other. With the ongoing global pandemic and, more recently, the war, we have seen unrealistic, incredulous events unfolding in front of our very eyes. And as such, one might be tempted to say her photographs curiously reflect the very current situation of the world.
