Some of the Many Things That I Want to Remember: Tomoko Kashiki
Ota Fine Arts Singapore is delighted to present "Some of the Many Things That I Want to Remember", a solo exhibition by Japanese artist, Tomoko Kashiki. This exhibition marks Kashiki's second solo presentation in Singapore, and will feature seven recent paintings as well as a selection of drawings. Kashiki's paintings pulsate between reality and imagination, and the imagery created is weaved from her daily encounters with different sceneries and figures.
Kashiki observes beauty and wonder in the minute details in life, and she focuses on reflecting this in her paintings through the postures and facial expressions of the figures as well as their surroundings. In the painting Soup of Memories Served with Smiling Sunflowers and Bones (2020), she portrays the figure's body in a curled-up position. The overlay of multiple elements creates an impression that the character could be lying at the far end of a room, or possibly floating in a pond or sky partially covered with patterned clouds. The idea behind this painting was developed from a combination of two earlier drawings -- the composition of one where a person is looking down into a room from outside of a window, and the concept of another where the sunset pours into a room, turning the floor orange. Although Kashiki's approaches may vary and the eventual appearance of each individual work may be different, they often share the same origin - "something" that she constantly attempts to capture, and which gives her a strong impetus to paint. While Kashiki was painting this piece, it started to look like a puddle of soup with red bloody flesh, which made her think of the title 'Soup of Memories'.
The characters in Kashiki's paintings are often singular and perhaps she prefers not to define the gender of these characters in her work. In another large painting in the exhibition, His Favorite Green Dress (2018 - 2019), Kashiki wanted to paint three motifs: the corner of the garden, bushes of trees, and a person standing there. The person in this painting is standing confidently in a highly exposed green dress. In this work, Kashiki paints the self-expression and pleasure of a person who proudly believes that their favourite green dress looks great on them.
Kashiki's unique style and intricate details are reminiscent of the aesthetic of Buddhist paintings during the Heian period and Bijinga, pictures of beautiful women. The artist focuses her attention on details such as fingers, limbs, nails and clothes' wrinkles which are realized through her unique technique that creates a flat, sanded-down surface on which she makes fluid drawing lines that appear as if they were imprinted by a pencil. Kashiki's works are personal, dream-like, yet often verging on the ironic by combining both real and imaginative elements. Ota Fine Arts Singapore invites you to experience Kashiki's intimate world that suspends her subjects between dreams and desires.
