“Static” Yukari Momoda solo exhibition

Event

“Static” Yukari Momoda solo exhibition
2018.12.7 (fri.) -12.26 (wed.) (Closed on Mondays, Sundays and National Holidays)
Admission: free

Venue

imura art gallery
http://www.imuraart.com/en/
Access:31 Kawabata-higashi Marutamachi Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8395 Japan
Tel:075-761-7372
Hours: 12:00-18:00
Closed: Sundays, Mondays, National Holidays

Introduction

This winter, imura art gallery is pleased to announce “Static,” the first solo exhibition by artist Yukari Momoda in four years.

Yukari Momoda received the head judge’s award at Tokyo Wonder Wall in 2008 and the Nippon Broadcasting Award (outstanding performance award) at the 30th Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize Exhibition in 2012. Around 2008, Momoda’s art focused on representations of the human form, but by 2013 it had transformed into abstract landscapes. Momoda comments that, ultimately she aims to merge the human figure with landscape scenes in some form. The remains, included in this exhibition, provides a glimpse of the artist exploring this aim.

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I have always been attracted to the way that time stands still in paintings. Since ancient times, paintings have acted as vessels for preserving the memory of past ages and the painter’s perspective, and when confronted with one of these paintings, I feel as if I’m seeing time reflected back in condensed form.

Wanting to visualize ‘time standing still’ on the canvas in the form of a painting,
I experimented by incorporating dynamic motifs into the static canvas as contrasting elements to make it more obvious that time is standing still in resulting painting. In my art, fluid paints and memories are dynamic images, while the canvas itself is a static motif. I interpret memories as dynamic entities because I believe that memories are a made-up, artificial world in which fragments of reality and preconceptions mix together, overlap, and are made to conform to our view of life over the passage of time, thereby forming the unique memories of each individual. In other words, I interpret things this way because I think that human memory is full of holes, like a strainer used to drain off water, and continually changing within our heads.

I attempt to visualize the fact that time stands still in paintings by painting it on my canvas. In so doing, I hope to pick up and recapture the time and intensity that has been unwittingly dropped by humankind, a creature that grows and evolves slowly but today lives in a society that prioritizes speed and efficiency.

Yukari Momoda