Extraordinary Contemporary Art Star SUGIYAMA Hinako @ PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO Extraordinary 現代アートのスター 杉山日向子 @ PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO

Splendid SUGIYAMA Hinako 杉山日向子 solo show @ PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO.

Hinako In Da House. Feel her paintings, feel her atonality. Her sound-colourscape, her composed symphonic tableaux lets you experience an immersive universe in your neurodivergent brain.

Without hesitation I can proclaim that her diptych from 2022「AΩ」is a masterpiece.
This oeuvre of unfinished wildness, with numerous allegories and hedonistic metaphors, captivates the viewer. Allows the eyes to wander restlessly from one painting situation to the other. We discover traces of antiseptic street art, as Hinako exceptionally uses the spray as an instrument of expression. A strongly anti-academic gesture that leads into the world of an invisible level of Asian spirit and Western anarcho-libertarian philosophy. This is further supported by the title: AΩ.
Become who you are. I paint, therefore I exist.
The revelation as catharsis. We can interpret this diptych as a turning point in Hinako’s Schaffen. She describes herself as “Alpha and Omega”, as the “beginning and goal”. This essential identity reflection is vindicated by Hinako with one sentence; quite a justified assessment of the current situation in the Japanese art world: “Hinako will judge you.” She will determine where the vector of the Japanese painting genre leads. A concise and clear description of the quintessence, probably the ultimate limit of Hinako’s artistic practice.

Protect me from what I want. Wish you were here, wish you were queer.
Hinako depicts her subverting beauty with animating elongated limbs, gesturing hands and cooly tilted heads that imbue them with a notion of iconicity and lends them the appearance of the contemporary broken youth. Living and art practicing as the Non-conformista in the ultra-conservative society of the rising sun. Chaos via Undercover. Undercurrent erotism, reeling blackburn as darkness is her birthright.
Her visual language enhance the subtle opulence of the androgynous and non binary, beguiling viewers through the iridescent shimmer of her seductive faces, even as they sense the ravenous spacey breaks that lurks beneath the glamour.
Controlled vulnerability in a pseudo-Japanese context, pop-culturing the cos-play vs mirror-play by de-coding the 自分らしく be yourself. Hinako lives in the Now. Since PARCO ’85：今日は何時間生きていますか。How many hours did you (really) lived, today? Various vague hints may come from the real luxuries in life: time, health, a quiet mind, slow mornings, ability to travel, rest without guilt, a good night’s sleep, calm and “boring” days, meaningful conversations, home-cooked meals, people you love and people who love you back. Condizione Umana via an extraordinary painter, who opens up for her peers.

Hinako’s juxtaposition of unhooked and vulnerable personal action/interaction with dreamlike sonic vibe-scapes, heartbeats+quake (I can hear SHIINA Ringo, Björk, Vanessa Williams, Japanese & European re-mix Funk, Anime-cuts in her tableaux) enact a concise groove scene implying collaborative, heavy bass blow creativity.
Who am I? How can 27-year-old Hinako seduce you and invite you to new, copacetic experiences?

Transcending a kind of postapocalyptic Japanese social and gender liberation, her sensitive self-portraits inspire imaginative realms of passionate, arousal vibrations and the manifestation of a slutty self-control. Her oil paintings dramatise themes of intimacy and stray-cat-grunge that blend the goth-contemporary with hints of Japanese pop-culture. We may considerate discreet liberties, that empowering womanhood can result in ambivalent feelings with (desired or unwished) pregnancy as a happy or c’est la vie life-design blossoming.

While contemplating in front of Hinako’s body of works, we realise that an underlying, sublime, social commentary runs like a common thread through the exhibition.
Finger pointing towards young capitalist, wanna-have-fun-women on TikTok or IG enjoying their digitalised “fuck-you-authentic-self” in front of the not-so-social, but materialistic consumers. Furthermore, in Japan we observe a structural anomaly in the world of girls with a romantic touch. Derogatory, discriminatory comments among girls regarding other girls’ faces, hair style, skin color, legs, etc.. The neurotic “mirror check” amongst Japanese girls via smartphone every 10 minutes to see whether your hair is in place, your make-up or your appearance is still correct. Catch “love likes” with the fictional filter app: even cooler, even more kawaii, even more Cinderella. In this process of self-discovery, which can last several decades, failing the self-deceptive test of attractiveness becomes depressive and suicidal. Said that, mothers tend to be a role model for young girls. The experience of checking one’s own image, which is primordial for a child’s psychic development, gives rise to an awareness of herself as a whole, through her reflection. The mirror check reveals the personal drama that everyone must go through in order to identify with themselves, to access the oneness of their body and be able to say: that’s me. Hinako’s Mirror Play is at the heart of analytic experience, exposes the question of identity.
Said that, may I quote the late artist KUBOTA Shigeko 久保田成子: “There is no problem, because there is no solution.”

Hinako’s allegory of the cave, chained in front of the viewer. We observe Hinako’s Spiegel Spiele. Embodied in dramatic shadow plays via strong camera flash, projected on the wall. Mystifying ma poupée japonaise-esque distortion in the dual play with the alter ego.
One of those moments for me, where I feel that magic is happening. This art exhibition experience elevates you into one own’s hedonistic Zone.
Nothing compares 2 U. Suggesting sapphic post-modernity identity play, whereas mutual dependence creator vs viewer would like to extent her evolutionary process into the nude. Time will tell. The heart wants what it wants.
Whiplash Hinako in the dark. Strike, dear mistress painter, and cure my heart.
Unplugged, club-dyke-like risks let the viewer’s brain spin off into cosmic vibrations. “Today, I wanna be your bad girl. Pleasure feeling with some self-controlled pain.” The nasty predator cat can serve bad bitch energy. Next time: “You may lick my high heels.”
Hinako’s oil painting gesture, her marvellous attitude as an artist, her brushwork (Pinselduktus) suggest the liberation from academic restraints, whilst we are still searching for some Craquelure. In vain, as her creative, graceful exercise, her sculptural, conditioning painting practice just began.

Hinako’s variations of idiosyncratic and cool self-performances. The emancipatory brush stroke by female roller derby star Hinako. Open for the next adventurous experience. Raw, kawaii, witty, seducing moments which are slowed down in a surrealistic, untidy painterly manner, brought to a stillness full of tension and potential for explosive action. Indeed, ambiguous origins of the Japanese subversive Zeitgeist.
SUGIYAMA Hinako 杉山日向子, the talk of the town. Hinako is present.
Her still running, fascinating solo show @ PARCO highly recommending. Applause!!!
1.1.2025 Tokyo
Mario A 亜 真里男

Hinako Sugiyama solo exhibition “Mirror Play”
PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO
20th December 2024 – 13th January 2025
https://en.art.parco.jp/museumtokyo/detail/?id=1620
https://art.parco.jp/museumtokyo/detail/?id=1620

Hinako Sugiyama 杉山日向子 @ IG
https://www.instagram.com/ghq_629/

See also:
Japanese Coolness on Canvas: Oil Painter SUGIYAMA Hinako 油絵画家 杉山日向子
https://art-culture.world/articles/sugiyama-hinako-杉山日向子/

Due to different lighting ambiente, the colours may slightly differ from the original work. Thank you for your understanding.

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