SASAOKA Yuriko
INTRODUCTION
Disappear From the Earth
"Disappear from the Earth" is no different in this respect. Similarly to other Sasaoka’s projects – sophisticated and frequently monumental video installations – the exhibition is genetically derived from the history of Western painting. As befits the classical standards of illusion painting (French trompe l’oeil), the show amuses and deceives the viewer’s senses referring to the spatial form of the post-painting world of illusion, filled with humour and irony. It mirrors the concept of the uncanny, the term borrowed from the tradition of Western psychoanalysis. In Sasaoka’s work, the uncanny should be understood as a collection of elements of oddity and mystery that simultaneously trigger feelings present while observing well-known phenomena.
A term that seems particularly accurate while interpreting "Disappear from the Earth" is disaster utopia. Proposed by Rebecca Solnit, the phrase describes the moment right after a great cataclysm, war or other extreme situation, the occurrence of which liberates a force with the potential to carry out a qualitative transformation in society/communities. Suppressed by actions that have their roots in the tradition of an oppressive system, such forces are not able to reach their full potential. With time, they become only (un)dreamed utopias. In the case of Sasaoka, the revolutionary need for change materializes in the form of processed and digested organic leftovers that symbolize a world united by diversity.
PROFILE
Born in Hirakata City, Osaka. To find the connection between painting and video, she draws out a sense of foreignness and discomfort that cannot be found in high-performance CG images, similar to the traces of hands and brushstrokes in paintings, and spins his own unique story. With the meticulous composition and narrative, she create a realistic sense of a unique world that is nostalgic but that no one has ever seen before. In 2017, she participated in an artist-in-residence program in the Republic of North Macedonia, where she got a culture shock by the warmth and richness of people's hearts. Since then, she has deepened her interest in the real people, lives, and history of the European world, which is the closest to Asia, and has been researching and presenting her work in Central and Eastern European countries.
She is currently based in the shared studio "Vostok" in Kyoto.
＜Major Exhibitons＞
2021：”Zniknij Z Ziemi", Trafostacja (Szczecin/Poland), "Lost in Translation", Gallery @KCUA(Kyoto), "Ripples around the water 2021", Shibuya City Office, Second Mitake Branch Office(Tokyo) , “Encounter - Infinite Variety of Faces” MIMOCA (Kagawa)
2019：Solo exhibition "Taiyo I", Dohjidai Gallery of Art(Kyoto), “Ascending Art Anual Vol.3” WACOAL STUDYHALL KYOTO (Kyoto), "CELEBRATION - Japanese-Polish Contemporary Art Exhibition- in Szczecin", TRAFO(Szczecin/Poland), “Polish Art Festival 2019 in Japan” Kyoto Art Center (Kyoto), 虛寫邊界", “On The Verge of Fiction” 1F, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, TNUA (Taipei/ Taiwan)
Venue
Grand Front Osaka Umekita SHIP Hall
4-1 Ofuka-cho, Kita-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka 530-0011
Umekita Plaza