EN
ARTWORKS
Nohana Izumikawa
Collected Breaths
Year: 2021
Materials: Cotton cloth, acrylic, colored pencils on panel
Size: 900mm × 600mm × 35mm (set of 4)
Pattern of Earth
Year: 2021
Materials: Wood, plaster, gesso, modeling paste, earth, charcoal
Size: 300mm × 300mm × 50mm (reconfigured for the Artist Room)
Guest Room: 217
Work Commentary:
The peculiar motif of a bird's head on a human body was inspired by a description of the Ryukyu Arc found in the early 14th-century Japanese map “Nihonzu.” The text reads: “Ryūkyū and Okinawa Islands: Human body, bird head (Ryūkyū Kingdom's Ōshima: body human, head bird).” This reveals the contemporary perspective that beyond Japan's borders dwelled unknowable, non-human entities. Viewed through this lens, might I too, living in Okinawa, be considered a bird-human?
In “Collected Breaths,” I gather my own fallen feathers and overlay them with an imaginary scene that mirrors my own feelings of reconsidering “Okinawa.” “Patterns of Earth” is a work expressed through multiple parts, depicting an image as if traces of such creatures that might have lived in the past were unearthed from this land. I picked up one fragment and displayed it.
PROFILE
Born in Okinawa Prefecture in 1991. Graduated from the Western Painting Course at Tohoku University of Art and Design in 2014. After completing the Master's Program in Western Painting at the same university in 2016, he continued his artistic practice centered on painting while relocating his base between Yamagata and Okinawa.
Using his native Okinawa as a theme, he creates collage works depicting contemporary Okinawan landscapes based on historical photographic materials, as well as drawings featuring tropical plants as motifs.
By composing multiple perspectives within a single frame and employing quintessentially Okinawan, commonplace motifs, he examines the interplay of reality and illusion inherent in the image of “Okinawa.”
Major exhibitions include: 〈Group Exhibitions〉 “Bear Fur, Bird Feathers” (Fryu Gallery / Tokyo / 2020) “Island Fitting, Island Drawing” (Hotel Anterum Naha / Okinawa / 2021) “Ryukyu's Profile” (Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum Planning Gallery 1 & 2 / Okinawa / 2021), “VOCA Exhibition 2022: Prospects for Contemporary Art - New Artists of the Plane” (Ueno Royal Museum / Tokyo / 2021), “Soft Conversations After School” (reservation-based group exhibition event / Warabi City / 2022),
〈Solo Exhibitions〉 “Gentle Birds” (Fryu Gallery / Tokyo / 2019), “Bird's Message” (People's Art Gallery / Okinawa / 2020), “Dawn Breaks, Waking to the Sound of Rain” (Fryu Gallery / Tokyo / 2022)