Tomoko Kashiki, Stuffed Toys and floral pillow, 2019

'Originally, I liked the Nehan-zu (painting of Buddha Nirvana), so I wanted to make a painting with reference to the Nehan-zu. However, I could read the Buddhism context but I was lacking emotional involvement to be able to paint, so I was postponing it. At the same time, the experience of having an abnormal amount of stuffed toys lined up by the bedside in my childhood and this position (impression) of the Nehan-zu were overlapping, these thoughts fostered the idea of this painting.
The thought became crucial when I read a note of a criminal noting that she / he had similarly numerous stuffed toys gathering like a fortress. I identified my own experience with the criminal, feeling some kind of sympathy, desolation, shame and attachment, and gained the motivation to paint. It is unwise to use real crimes as a motif or to be sympathetic with them. Hence, I cannot profess openly but this is the truth. I have uneasy feelings about my warped immaturity towards stuffed toys. Yet on the other hand, there is a feeling of not wanting to let go of this attachment.This sense of ambivalence stimulates my impulse to paint.
(I agree that one should not publish or accept an expression based on criminal behavior because I believe it will hurt the victim twice. When I treat the criminal’s note as a motivation to create, it may show that my painting occasionally originates from violence: tearing off part of someone’s experience while fertilizing my motivation to paint.)'

[Tomoko Kashiki] Born in 1982, Kyoto, Japan where she continues to live and work today. Kashiki has held solo exhibitions at Ota Fine Arts, Singapore (2020, 2014), Shanghai (2019), Tokyo (2016, 2011, 2009), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2016) and Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, (2015). She also participated in the group presentations “Rituals of Signs and Metamorphosis”, Red Brick Museum, Beijing (2018), “Dreamers Awake”, White Cube Bermondsey, London (2017), “7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art”, Brisbane (2012), “Yokohama Triennale”, Yokohama (2011), “Bye Bye Kitty!!!”, Japan Society Gallery, New York (2011). Her works are in the collections of the Museum of Old and New Art (Australia), Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art (Australia), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Japan), and others.

Traces: Tomoko Kashiki, Genevieve Leong, and Guo-Liang Tan

Tokyo

Shanghai

Singapore

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Tomoko Kashiki

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