Exhibition

July 9 (sat.) 〜 30 (sat.),  2016
Hours : 12:00 - 19:00
Closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

About Exhibition

Yuriko Sasaoka is a filmmaking artist. She films the puppets without face and then paste the picture of actual human face onto that puppet’s image. By doing this, she could unfold the story of the world with imaginary creatures that reminds us of classic movie using special effects.
  Her artwork is unique in the way that the story is based on carefully made structure and motif with puppets controlled by strings, sometimes by the stagehands. In addition, the face, feet and hands of each puppet are combined with CG techniques. This combination of low& high-tech creates the world in which we see not only familiar figures but also something we have never seen before. The unpredictable story urges the viewers to actively commit in thoughts and understanding of the work.
  Anima(2014) features the puppet which was played by the artist and the horse mackerel which is to be killed by the puppet. The artist treats the motifs as living things, and tries to put each puppet’s perspective into each screen on both sides at the same time. Anima was highly recommended and received an award in 2014(‘Tatehata Akira Award’ at art award tokyo marunouchi 2014, also elected for Jury Selections at 18th Japan Media Arts Festival).
Atem (2015), was inspired by the scariness that comes from aging. It is organized by the movie made out of several faces of puppets and the artist’s  breeding face. The movie is linked with the bubbling water pool before the screen. This work received ‘Special Prize’ at the Taro Okamoto for Contemporary Art in 2016.
　Icarus’s Bride is a video installation, which shows the story of dolls that moves by the human power and a bride doll, which is played by the artist. Each of the doll’s faces are made with composite CG image. The story is not only told by these dolls but also with a lyric poem ‘Hana-yome Ningyo’(Bride Doll)written in Taisho period(beginning of 20th century),together with the artist’s original melody and lyrics.
  As we can see from the title, Icarus is based on a character from the Greek myth who was trapped in a maze with his father Daedalus an inventor, but managed to escape thanks to the father’s wisdom. However, Icarus ruined his life by his ambition.  The bride doll Yoriko is played by the artists herself. Two figures of Icarus and Daedalus are much bigger than Yoriko, and they are moved by stagehands that wears ox-like costume which reminds us of Minotaurus. This changes the viewer’s sense of scale. The unique melody and energetic lyrics sung by Yoriko mixes with other characters and the story line, and it enables us to think of various meanings. The viewers are required to face the artwork to involve in a dialogue.
Icarus’s Bride was also exhibited in Setouchi Triennale 2016, and each version are shown completely in a different way. We would like you to see Sasaoka’s creation in which the reality and the fantasy are in complete company.