View

Nanae Kawahara

Nanae Kawahara on ‘View’

When making these six new works of illustration, I lingered at the point of starting. In recent years, how to face the making of original works has become a major issue. This is always difficult, but it is becoming clear that my best starting point is from my own experiences and feelings. So, I have titled this showcase View — which simply sums up that these works are expressing what I see and how I feel about each subject.

Being alive also leads me to consider mortality as I age toward the future. I have experienced both happy and sad things, and I began to think about what it means to live. I can try to make sense of this by knowing about the social and historical context of people, places, and important events. On the other hand, we are spending our own lives in the normality of the everyday. I took on the challenge of creating this work with an emphasis on seeing things amid those differences. Quite small matters though, which all add up to the continuation of life and living well.

Dance Hall

Inspired by the many old small streets with pubs in Japan. These kinds of areas are not for everyone, but we feel attracted by the neon lights in the dark of night, and the weird smells. Maybe, there is a pub where people become honest when they enter.