Japanese Kawaii-ness and Virginity as Social Attitude: ROKKAKU Ayako (42) @ GALLERY TARGET, Omotesando 社会的態度としての日本の可愛いさと処女性：ロッカクアヤコ (42) @ GALLERY TARGET、表参道
ロッカクアヤコ Ayako Rokkaku @ Art Fair Tokyo アートフェア東京 2009
ROKKAKU Ayako ロッカクアヤコ (born 1982 in Chiba, Japan) lives and works between Berlin, Porto, and Tokyo. A self-taught artist, her artistic process involves an instinctive and performative approach, as she uses her bare hands to apply acrylic paint, translating the motion of her body onto the canvas. The first time I encountered Rokkaku was during the Art Fair Tokyo 2009 at the booth of the Gallery Delaive from Amsterdam. As you can see, the performative character with her two fingers, sticking into a pink acrylic tub/can, becomes clear.
ロッカクアヤコ Ayako Rokkaku @ Art Fair Tokyo アートフェア東京 2009, detail_1ロッカクアヤコ Ayako Rokkaku @ Art Fair Tokyo アートフェア東京 2009, detail_2
These pink and childlike illustrations of cartoon-inspired figures immersed in rainbow-hued environments, suggest a psychosomatic practice by Rokkaku, ergo reflecting her Japanese Kawaii-ness, including her notion of virginity.
ロッカクアヤコ Ayako Rokkaku @ Art Fair Tokyo アートフェア東京 2009, Gallery Delaive, Amsterdam
Let’s quote Rokkaku:
“When I was 24 years old, Takashi Murakami invited me to join the Kaikaikiki booth in the Volta art fair in Basel. At that time he taught me that just liking painting is not enough to survive in the contemporary art world, and how he is fighting so hard with keeping the spirit of the artist. He never taught me about any technical things, but without him I might not have chosen to continue as an artist.”
Steadily she found recognition as a mid-career artist and progressed in shaping sculptures made from bronze and glass, see her latest works at the GALLERY TARGET, which moved recently to posh Omotesando, the Japanese “Champs-Élysées”.
GALLERY TARGET @ Tokyo, Omotesando 表参道 (new address since April 2023)Until March 2023, the former place of GALLERY TARGET in Jingumae 2-32-10, (Harajuku), Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. Photo taken in 2016
