EXHIBITIONS

Tokyo International Gallery presents “when I see you, you are luminous,” a solo exhibition by up-and-coming artist ayakaendo! Tokyo International Gallery (Shinagawa, Tennozu) is pleased to present “when I see you, you are luminous,” a solo exhibition by up-and-coming artist ayakaendo. ayakaendo’s works capture not only the beauty of nature, but also the “light” hidden within it. The moments photographed as if melting the boundary between self and others seem to suggest a future that is both real and unreal. To imagine the spirit of nature through the idea of animism may be to pause once in the human-centered society we have built throughout our long history and find a way to coexist. In this exhibition, “when I see you, you are luminous,” we hope you will experience the artist’s sensation that the boundary between self and others is dissolved by the “light” emitted from nature.

―Artist Statement―

The ‘Kamuy Mosir’ series began in Hokkaido, Japan, where I went on a sudden spur of the moment, as if guided…
In the midst of the depressive days restricted by the COVID-19 epidemic, I felt a mysterious sense of mission and a need to seek relief from my helpless situation, and I knew I must photograph nature and animals. I felt I had to.
I strongly believed that nature was the only ray of hope. I then photographed the things I encountered one by one, shining my light on them, especially on the helpless, unfettered domestic animals.
“Shining light” is an important way to dissolve the boundary between me and ‘you’, to encounter the world again, to resonate with it, to use imagination, to become intimate with ‘you’, and to bring us flexibly into the future and into the unreal.
It is a magical force that can take us flexibly into the future and into the unreal.
When we see and imagine “you,” may “you” be filled with light.
The empty but bright light from the creatures filled my space.