Alice is here, not anywhere else
Graphic artist Kahori Maki is holding her first exhibition of old drawings, "Where is Alice?"
Maki Kahori, whose creative work revolves around "products, spaces, and words that arise from a single painting," went to America after graduating from Nihon University College of Art and studied fine art in New York. After returning to Japan, she began working as an illustrator, and has worked on advertising, fashion, textiles for sports brands, and spatial design for companies and hotels. With a father who is a painter, Maki decided at a young age to make a living through painting. Influenced by her mother, a flower arrangement teacher, she says she "often drew vibrant and energetic things," such as flowers and plants, which are reflected in her current works.
Drawings continued during anxious days
Maki says that he is fundamentally attracted to the world of monochrome, such as the light and shade of ink. Now known both in Japan and overseas, Maki's vivid worldview, which seems to activate the cells of the viewer, was born from the Great East Japan Earthquake. "Many people are looking for gentle and colorful things, so I want to depict a bright world," he thought, and began to paint works reminiscent of large flowers blooming in tropical countries. He also says that the curves that characterize his works are attracted to and represent those of flowers and plants.
This time she will be presenting drawings. "When the state of emergency was declared two years ago, art supply stores and printing shops were closed, so I had to create using only what I had in my studio, and all I had was a huge amount of craft paper. I continued to work diligently on pencil drawings on tissue paper that is normally used to protect artworks," she says, which is what led to this exhibition.
Also, unable to print large-format works, he divided the painting into A3 size pieces on the atelier's printer, printed them out, and noticed that an unexpected picture emerged when he randomly connected the pieces. Rather than drawing towards a clear image, Maki's production style, in which he moves his body to connect what emerges and draws in response to the world that appears as he moves his hands, has led to a new technique called wall collage.
"The days of admiring the scenery, painting, stepping back and solving the mystery" are filled with the same anxiety everyone feels, and the overlapping of curves is born from the simple movement of his hands. The shapes that emerge from these overlaps have emerged as a new motif for Maki.
Eyes that see reality and eyes that see the inner self
"In the face of a global pandemic, I felt anxious and searching for a direction to take, and I started to pay more attention to eyes and pupils, something I hadn't done before, and I began drawing a lot of nature, living things, and things that look like living things."
Maki says that up until now he has had difficulty expressing his intentions clearly and has never liked drawing eyes. However, during the state of emergency, he began to vividly picture the faces and eyes of people he had never drawn before. The left and right eyes are all drawn unbalanced, and Maki calls them "eyes that see reality" and "eyes that see one's inner self."
The rabbit symbolizes a creature that appeared as Maki became immersed in the time and space created by the overlapping lines. As if drawn by this, the production progressed, and he arrived at the worldview of Alice in Wonderland, which he had previously tackled as a theme but left unfinished. For Maki, drawing became a daily search for Alice.
In addition to the works he has been working on for the past two years and those he created specifically for this exhibition, he will be working on murals that he drew directly on the walls of the gallery during the setup of the venue. These 30 or so works depict birds and rabbits that seem to emerge from curved lines, and other things that no one knows about but that seem to exist somewhere.
The series of drawn curves overlaps with the "Caucus Lace" lace that Alice and her friends spin in a circle, and visitors to the venue will feel as if they are sliding into Alice's world. This is a unique worldview of Maki, who has worked on many spatial designs and is also skilled in installations that "inspire pictures from space."
In search of a new world that is nowhere else
We are now all too familiar with the idea of slipping unexpectedly into an absurd world. Wherever Alice goes, she finds herself in a strange place, where everyone she meets is an animal whose behavior is difficult to understand. Is this world an imaginary one?
"There are infinite possibilities for creativity, and people can create new worlds like this." Maki says that it is the artist's mission to show this. Even as the life he had taken for granted was turned upside down, Maki continued to explore with what he had, and still "created a large number of works." His appearance overlaps with Alice, who has had serious events happen to her and has come to realize how nonsensical it is to think that life will continue in the normal way. And we are reminded that Alice is ourselves.
Now that we are searching for new ways of living and new values, there is a lot of talk about the metaverse as a parallel world that is distinct from the real world. From the perspective of the virtual world, where we can overcome all the limitations of reality, the real world seems so inefficient, slow, and ambiguous. Where are we, Alice, who looks into the real and virtual worlds, and where are we headed?
"We are still living in a world of chaos. I want people to have willpower, to surrender, and to find interest, richness, and possibilities in the ever-overlapping lines."
Maki, who has collaborated with Apple and Adobe Systems inc. and has finished all of his work digitally to date, has discovered a new world through his low-resolution pencil drawings, which is highly thought-provoking.
If you look closely at yourself while keeping an eye on reality, you will come across a world of nowhere. The new world that Maki Kahori has discovered in her studio using only paper and pencil tells us that it is here, where we are now.
