Ayako
My body of work investigates the spaces around us and details of the natural world. Initially, my work aimed to capture familiar settings. This evolved to include natural themes and subjects, reinforcing a lasting beauty found in ephemeral and imperfect qualities. This is supported by the mix of figurative forms and abstract elements achieved primarily through 2D artworks with mixed media. My artworks are rooted in reality, based on my own photographs and often slightly abstracted. This approach was a reaction to lockdown and the desire to look and treasure the surrounding nature. My vision for presenting this body of work was to share my intimate connections to the spaces around me to encourage the audience to search for the unnoticed details that adorn their daily lives. I want to influence and evoke an emotional response to the natural world.
Since my first artwork Familiarity, I was taken by the way nature interacted with the city. I wanted my art to reflect the spaces personal to me. I then explored the undeniable connection between humans and the natural world in 3D artworks Floating through Space and The Space Within representing jellyfish. In searching for a challenge, I limited myself to unfamiliar media to expand my range of skills beyond drawing such as ceramics, papier maché and wires. Instead, I wanted to work more concretely tied to personal experiences and culture. This was achieved through Semblance of Substance and Always chasing the sun. In Always chasing the sun, I returned to painting natural details with my preferred medium, watercolours. This artwork tied my body of work together thematically, in colour scheme and in objective. As I regularly document my surroundings through photographs and drawings, up until my final artwork Always chasing the sun, I referenced my photographs to share treasured details in my daily life and my travels. The organic lines in my artworks are representational of the uncalculated spontaneity of humans and nature alike. I achieved these rhythmical patterns through diluted acrylic paint washes, ink and watercolours. Watery mediums provided unpredictable but often serendipitous results.
I was initially conceptually inspired by Antony Gormley’s Another Singularity, a work I visited in person. It influenced my approach to search towards spatial and temporal contexts for a better understanding of ourselves. The focus on our relationship with nature was prompted by Ernest Pignon-Ernest’s Les Arbrorigènes, capturing the evanescence of living. Encountering Shōji Hamada’s pottery was a turning point stylistically. Instead of seeking precise perfection, I allowed beauty to emerge from an honest presentation. Other Japanese influences included art from kakejiku, hanging scrolls, and its use of negative spaces.
My exhibition is in a room with three walls. On the central wall, to the right of a large window, seen first when the audience enters the room, is my most recent artwork, Always chasing the sun. The collection of watercolours are spread along the wall. It creates cohesion as it balances the colours displayed on either side of the room, warm greens and orange on its left and cool blues on its right. Furthermore, the colour values in the artworks around the room alternate. Along with the lighting from the window, illuminating the triptych and Perfectly Inconsistent located in the centre of the room, they create an atmospheric space. This enables the audience to inspect the entire 3D structures and how they interact with lighting at different points of view. On the immediate left, is my first artwork, introducing my journey of ideas. The triptych and ceramic piece beside it, display a connection in their use of painterly surface motifs. The room is divided into vegetal subjects on the left and water themed on the right. I have tried to maintain an impression of lightness in the atmosphere of the exhibition as a whole.
In the way that photographs last but the natural subjects do not, from my exhibition, I would like the audience to appreciate the impermanent details of nature. After a long period of restricted movement, I would like to suggest that extravagance is not needed to be impressed. Instead, to consider minute features in their day to day or future travels including lighting and natural beings such as trees and flowers.
Always chasing the sun (March 2022)
Watercolour on paper
80 x 80 cm
Always chasing the sun is a collection of watercolour paintings. The paintings are based on photographs of nature from travels and daily life. I intended to share the impermanent details of nature. I was influenced by childhood inspiration, watercolour illustrator Chihiro Iwasaki, through her attention to negative space. I tried to produce outlines by adding water directly onto paper. I layered pigments to imitate depth. The watercolouring process required practice, patience and confidence.
Perfectly Inconsistent (December 2020)
Ceramic, oxides, glaze and graphite
15 x 15 x 15 cm
Perfectly Inconsistent embodies the unpredictability that comes with living. This clay sculpture is a collection of textures based off of Familiarity and Semblance of Substance. There are many influences from traditional Japanese pottery and artist Shōji Hamada. Additionally, inspiration is taken from Kyra Cane’s serendipitous approach. This is achieved by leaving the imperfections of the sensitive clay medium as an honest expression of the process and ultimately of the beauty of inconsistency.
Cyclical (October 2020)
Charcoal and chalk on paper
50 x 39 cm
Based on a photograph of La Seine, Cyclical was a challenge to venture away from angular forms and to attempt organic features. Similar to the works of Claude Monet and Adelsteen Norman, there is strong attention in the contrasting tones of the water which is reproduced in black and white with charcoal and chalk. Cyclical intends to express the circular movement of the water while simultaneously displaying the never-ending cycle of living just as water infinitely wraps Earth.
Radiance (December 2020)
Acrylic paint on canvas
30 x 30 x 2 cm
Radiance is based on a picture which captured a small source of light during dark times. I wanted to highlight the small details of everyday life in familiar settings that go unnoticed. Similar to hyper realistic painter Ralph Goings, there is a delicate attention to lighting and how it illuminates the subject. Acrylic paint was layered on from a monochromatic underpainting to a brightly covered finish. This process was to ensure the tonal contrast and radiance of the melon.
Familiarity (September 2020)
Mixed media
28 x 119 cm
Familiarity is a collage of photographs I took 250 metres in the small world around our school. Inspired by Karen Stamper’s concertina’s, this visual journaling style of what surrounds us is a reflection of my perspective on the area I have grown up in. This is expressed through an amalgamation of Parisian architecture and scenes I have come to appreciate. There is experimentation with how ink reacts to textured surfaces to alter familiar images and bring out unnoticed details.
Floating through Space (March 2021)
Mixed media
122 x 24 x 24 cm
Floating through Space is symbolic of the interaction between humans and their environments. Inspired by Ernest Pignon-Ernest’s interpretation of the briefness of life and nature, the barely sentient jellyfish reflects these qualities. The monochromatic colour scheme and the contrasting tonal hues emphasises the glow of the jellyfish interconnected to its environment. Light shines through the layers of glue and tissue paper. The kinetic element allows reactions to its space and time.
The Space Within (June 2021)
Mixed media
69 x 26 x 26 cm
The Space Within is a continuation of Floating through Space. It reinterprets the consciousness of the jellyfish within the space it is in. The line between where the sky ends and the ocean starts is blurred. The glue and tissue paper shell resembles half a moon on the outside in reference to the Japanese characters of jellyfish (ocean moon). Inside, a galaxy opens up. Wire and glue hangs down the circumference of the shell in the form of jellyfish tentacles, imitating stars.
Semblance of Substance (September 2021)
Acrylic paint, ink and gesso on canvas
150 x 100 cm
The application of materials in Semblance of Substance produced an abstract landscape. As the ink spread and mixing of watery acrylics, a scenery started to emerge. A vagueness in shape intends a varied interpretation by viewers. Nature is mimicked through harmonious colours and erratic composition. Mary Kessell’s works inspired an ambiguity of figures and ephemerality of natural subjects. This artwork is influenced by Japanese scroll paintings inspired by a trip to the Japanese countryside.
Seeping In (March 2022)
Acrylic paint and ink on canvas
58 x 146 cm
Seeping In is the final complementary canvas painting to form a triptych with Semblance of Substance and Growing Out. Its form replicates a Japanese scroll painting, mixing abstract and figurative forms. Among the diluted acrylic and ink spreads, a scene of bushes appears. This was inspired by a photograph I took at Mashiko Pottery Village, Japan. The tremendous light seeping through illuminated the colours of nature. This is conveyed by superimposing acrylic paint over the faint background.
Growing Out (November 2021)
Acrylic paint, ink and gesso on canvas
58 x 146 cm
Growing Out is the continuation of Semblance of Substance. It explicitly presents a figurative natural subject. A less saturated background allowed the pot of water lilies to lie on top harmoniously. Water was sprayed at the acrylic paint and ink for a subdued and larger spread. This is contrasted with the detailed and saturated subject. In the style of a Japanese scroll painting, the subject is off-centred and minimal. Like scroll paints, there is a coexistence of abstract and concrete.
