Midnight Birthday Party (2010), 11"x9", Watercolor on paper
If you’re in the mood for sweet paintings with a palpable sense of childhood discomfort, look no further than Hikari Shimoda’s works, now on view at the Foley Gallery through May 7.
The exhibit, titled “me, as in the beast coat,” has some echoes of Shimoda’s Japanese contemporary and predecessor Nara Yoshitomo. According to Shimoda, children aren’t the carefree souls we oblivious grown-ups presuppose them to be. They suffer humiliation, sexual embarrassment, loneliness and hollowed out abandonment. That’s some pretty heavy emotional baggage, but whatever these real or imagined children are thinking is buried in the pretty pastel world where they reside. The presence of Teddy bears, birthday cakes, blue skies with fluffy white clouds, however, are still no match for the sad biography of childhood, interrupted.
I found it poignant that Shimoda, a native of Nagano, chose to depict children in a delicate palette, evocative of the Japanese kawaii culture but also light years apart from the feelings of trivial joy associated with cartoon characters. Unwritten chastisement of adults was visible everywhere. Who else could possibly be responsible for the false assurances and let-downs our little anti-heroes were enduring? The absence of the villain in the paintings seemed to further underscore my hypothesis that there was nothing more unforgivable, and therefore unmentionable, than the shadowy authority that would let this happen. The artist’s message also evoked the universal notion of an inner child residing in all of us, somehow forgotten after all these years, but still there, desperately seeking comfort, love, and an outpouring of empathy.
Shimoda’s paintings are beautiful, and had me looking forward to more from this young and talented Japanese artist. At 26 years old, she has probably put childhood well behind her. Still, as her works demonstrate, that makes her young enough to see glimpses of the past in the rearview mirror. For more information on the current exhibit, see here.
Comfortable Sadness, 2010, 57"x45"
Birthday Party, 2010, 29"x41", Acrylic and gouache on paper mounted on wood panel
Funeral of My Character, 2010, 45.5"x40", Acrylic on paper mounted on wood panel
Pensive art appreciation in the midst of gallery chaos.
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