"Kawaii Exhibition" Fumika Horikoshi, others May 2015, 5 - May 25, 2015
Venue: Art Gallery T+
Date: April 2015, 5 (Monday) - April 25, 2015 (Friday)
Exhibitor: Fumika Horikoshi (2nd year, Western painting major, School of Art and Design)
Kazumi Yoshida (as above)
Tsurumi Ami (as above)
Narita Kazuki (as above)
Saki Shimokama (as above)
Riko Osako (as above)
Nanase Kawaji (as above)
Hinako Nomura (as above)
Yuriko Numata (as above)
Hikaru Sakai (as above)
Akari Ohno (as above)
Aya Watanabe (same as above)
Each exhibitor will display their own idea of "kawaii."
T+review
There were 11 kinds of "kawaii" there. Fluffy and elusive "kawaii". "kawaii" that has been produced for a price. "kawaii" that is seemingly grotesque, yet somehow palpable. In the gallery, I felt as if these works were asking me, "We think this is cute, but what do you think?"
But what exactly is "kawaii"? Our daily conversations, the magazines lined up at convenience stores, TV shows featuring celebrities, rambling tweets on social media...every aspect of our daily lives is filled with this word. But there is almost no consistency in what they refer to. Your pet kitten is cute, the behavior of an old man you saw on the train is cute, this is cute, that is cute - there are as many "cute" meanings as there are people. It's as if we just slap the "cute" label on anything that suits our tastes. The word "kawaii" is extremely ambiguous.
There were 11 works on display in the gallery. Some of them were a little strange or scary, and some could not be simply described as "cute." However, to the creators and to those who found them "cute," each work was undoubtedly "cute."
"Kawaii" is a word we use casually in our daily lives. I think the "Kawaii Exhibition" was an opportunity for me to confront this word. (Oyabu Saki)
