GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Shoko Fujimori entitled “Don’t take it for granted that we’re alive!” from Saturday, November 26th through Saturday, December 24th.
In the early works, Fujimori described humans covered with thin skin-like film. Regardless of the age or sex, the viewers can see internal organs and blood vessels from the skins of the portraits. Fujimori chose the motifs that she could feel something that happened around her acutely from the skin.
In another series, Fujimori challenged to employ fashion as the second skin and depicted women wearing fashionable costumes that are more like mannequins than human beings. Fujimori positively expressed fashion and SNS as communication tools by using various motifs related to fashion such as mirrors and show window glass, and images of photographs on social networking services.
According to Fujimori, she could not avoid the influence on the contents of paintings from the quarantined life due to COVID-19. Since the disease cannot approach people, her point of view shifted to herself from others. She said that it was an opportunity to reconsider communication which is her main theme, and how she could express it. In the last solo exhibition, Fujimori showed new painting series that used the theme of masterpieces that show a strong figure that confronts difficulties without giving up hope and suggest communication as the motif. She succeeded in being acquired a new expression from the masterpieces she was encouraged to and creating carefully layered ones that are the signature of Fujimori.
Witnessed the rapid changes and the social problems coming out one after another since her last solo exhibition, Fujimori was shocked by the issues of the real world as if they happen in the world of dramatic masterpieces. She has reconsidered the ordinary life in the general public. At the same time, she realized that we have lived bound by the invisible "common sense" and "ordinary" that exist in each society.
Fujimori attempt to depict the scene of the ensemble cast like a myth to free us from the values of the evaluations surrounding us. The works seem to project her own experiences, but she actually shows people who have similar experiences and issues. By depicting the personal stories with the touch of masterpieces, she tries to visualize the problems that many women face, as well as the problems that other people may have.
In that sense, Fujimori's works make viewers aware that they may be forcing their own "common sense" on others, even though they themselves are tormented by the "common sense" of others.
Shoko Fujimori was born in 1986 in Hokkaido and received her MFA from the Tokyo University of the Arts majoring in oil painting in 2013. In 2006 before she entered the university, Fujimori received the prize in Tokyo Wander Wall. She also won the prize at the 2010 Gunma Biennale for Young Artists and was nominated Sonpo Japan Art Prize in 2014.
GALLERY MoMo 両国 では 11月26日(土)から 12月24日(土)まで藤森詔子による個展「生きていることをあたりまえと思うな！」を開催致します。
藤森詔子は 1986 年北海道生まれ、2013年東京芸術大学修士課程を修了し、群馬青年ビエナーレ(2010年)やFACE2014損保ジャパン美術賞などに入選し、国内で個展を重ねて来ました。
初期作品では、内臓や血管が透けて見えてしまうかと思えるほどの、皮膚というより薄い皮膜で覆われた性別が判然としない人物を描き、そうした肌で感じられる感覚にシリアスにリアリティを持ち、モチーフとして来ました。
近作では、皮膚を覆い隠すファッションを第二の肌と捉え、ファッションと関係のある日常的な風景を描き、コミュニケーションとしてのファッションやSNSなどを肯定的に表現しました。しかし、そうしたコミュニケーションの在り方や、人との距離感をテーマに描こうとしてきた藤森にとって、コロナ禍でそのコミュニケーションの断絶を余儀なくされ、 “人に近寄れない病気”であるコロナ感染症の状況は、制作内容に影響せざるを得なかったと語り、自粛中自身の絵画に対するあり方について再考を重ねてきました。
藤森は、前回の個展から、社会で起こる急速な変化や問題を目の当たりにし、劇的な絵画の世界で起きていたことが現実世界で起きていることに衝撃を受け、世間一般の当たり前の暮らしを見直すようになったと言います。
同時に私たちは、社会に存在する見えない「常識」や「当たり前」など他者からの評価基準に縛られて生活してきたと気づき、そのような周りからの評価に縛られていた価値観から解放を求めた作品は、神話のワンシーンのような群像劇を思わせ、藤森自身の体験を投影させているようでもあります。個人的な物語を描いているようにも思えますが、多くの女性が抱える問題、また他人が抱えているであろう問題を可視化しているとも理解できます。
そうした意味で藤森作品は、自分自身が他人の「常識」に苦しめられているにも関わらず、他者に自分の「常識」を押し付けている可能性もあると気づかせ、見る人たちに新たな視点をもたらすでしょう。
本展では、原点を見直す契機となった前回の個展『舵を取れ！』からさらに掘り下げた新作約10点により、藤森の新たな試みを展開する予定です。
