Hey!
All summer I remembered about Shintaro Ohata's exhibition "The Place Where It All Begins", which was held at the Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art. But it turned out to get there only on the penultimate day of its closure, on Saturday.
There was a terrible line at the entrance in Erarta. It always surprises me that there are a lot of people there. After all, the museum is located in such an inconvenient place, far from the metro. But still people go there. A very large number of fashionable youth, but also married couples with children, bloggers filming broadcasts and even met a grandmother with a stick!
So, a little about the exhibition.
Shintaro Ohata is a Japanese artist from Hiroshima who creates his works by combining sculpture and painting. This is the first solo exhibition of the artist outside of Asia.
Some of his works are presented in the form of 3D paintings. Such paintings consist of a background and sculptures that are located in front of it.
The place where it all begins. Why such a name?
Collecting the little things in life - rain, a breath of wind, watching a candle flame or a moment of parting - Ohata invites us to stop and listen to ourselves. The moment captured by the author turns into eternity and can serve as the beginning of a journey to the origins, to “the place where everything begins” - to the world of childhood. Here you can completely surrender to living every sensation, be it loneliness, surprise, admiration or light sadness.
For example, like this.
The heroines of the paintings are anime teenage girls. I really like this look. These girls, depicted on swings, parks, in the city, create a certain mood of loneliness. There is a certain charm in this. Dramaticism in everyday life.
Light is very important in works. Night light of cities, light from a smartphone screen, fire, shop windows.
Pictures are created in several stages. First, a backdrop is created, then a volumetric miniature is created from polyester foam. And only after that, as soon as the composition and image are thought out to the smallest detail, the artist starts working on a full-size painting.
Ohata is not a professional artist. He worked as a graphic designer, and the creation of these paintings was his hobby. According to the artist, while searching for his own style, drawn backdrops from the world of theater and cinema served as a source of inspiration for him. They gave him the idea of sculptures protruding beyond the surface of paintings.
Particularly difficult, according to the artist, was to find the color balance between the sculpture and the backdrop. Sintara glued Japanese washi paper to the sculpture, which had already been painted in different colors. So he chose the color balance. I noticed that the sculptures are painted with a gradient. Where light falls on them are the lightest areas, and those parts that go into the shadow are dark.
One of the techniques that the artist uses is to create backgrounds based on real landscapes. In fact, the same technique is used in anime. All streets and houses are created from real city landscapes.
Girl with a guitar. This work, which gave the name to the exhibition "The Place Where It All Begins"
Well, I'll show you other works. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down all the titles. I thought I would buy a catalog from a museum store. But it turned out that the exhibition catalog is so valuable that it is not sold, but presented as a prize to be won.
But the names of the paintings, in principle, are rather laconic - "Winter", "Rainy Day 1", etc. So you can just watch and meditate :)
Thank you for the attention!
Hope you were interested :)
Veta