Ko

The artworks in my exhibition represent birds. I am passionate about birds and inquisitive about how to show them in my artwork. Birds are one of the most important species in this world and I want to express the importance of the beauty of their existence. My vision in presenting this body of work was to include things that appear to be alive and to captivate the audience and their interest in the visual beauty of birds. My exhibition pieces are mostly 2D figurative drawings and paintings made from graphite, charcoal, mixed-media and acrylic paint, in a range of scales that show birds around me in my life in Paris and those significant from my Japanese culture. I have also made 3D painted constructions from wood.

My work began with my piece representing life with seagulls and ducks in their environment. This was based on a series of my own photographs near the Seine River and included the birds with paving stones, nature and surrounding buildings and is drawn in detail to express a sense of reality. Inspired by Dürer, my drawings of Beetle on the hand and Skeleton bird were very detailed and I added shadows to make them look more realistic. In my 3D artworks I wanted to use the technique of layering to create pieces that would make the viewer think and imagine. One of my inspirations was the wooden boxes of Joseph Cornell, as if a bird is flying out of a wooden box, and I applied it to my Carolina Parakeet piece. My two colourful paintings reflect my Japanese culture. My large scale painting shows my own parakeet with a background of different cities in Japan and my small painting shows a Japanese traditional falcon and background style.