Chiho Aoshima - "Chiho in the City Glow"
Chiho in the City Glow
Debates centering around the necessity of attending art school in the digital age have recently surged across all online spheres, but art school purists may’ve met their match in the provocative and inspired works of Economics major turned pop artist Chiho Aoshima. Aoshima taught herself how to illustrate digitally, and after having work featured in Takashi Murakami’s Tokyo Girls Bravo,was invited to work in his factory as part of the Kaikai Kiki Collective. Murakami, founder of the Japanese post-modern Superflat art movement, would act as a surrogate professor in her artistic endeavors[1]. Aoshima’s career is proof that ambition and a compelling artistic vision are all one needs to achieve success in the arts.
After finding her place among the well-known KaiKai Kiki Collective, Aoshima would go on to have works included in the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the Seattle Art Museum.[2]This acclaimed work would inspire a collaboration with famed Japanese designer Issey Miyake on his 2003 Spring/Summer collection.[3]Other high-profile projects include a series of works which was featured in numerous ad-spaces throughout the Union Square subway station in New York, and a 2005 solo show in which she presented a 5-screen 7-minute animation piece along with her first sculptural piece.[4]While the transition from confused university student to successful artist may appear seamless on Aoshima’s resume, her unconventional path was, in reality, difficult to navigate.
Aoshima struggled considerably in her time as an Economics student, having been quoted as saying “When I was going to university, (Department of Economics) I was bored to death, even when I was hanging out with my friends. I was eager to create something but didn’t know what to create, every day time passed so slowly and I felt like I was going to die.Since I have had that experience, even in situations where I’m extremely busy and don’t have the time to sleep, I can still think to myself ‘it is better this way than to have nothing to do.”[5]Although she majored in economics, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do and didn’t feel overly attached to her studies. Instead, she took on a number of part-time jobs to keep her mind busy. One, a job in the graphic design department of a company, required a basic knowledge of Adobe Illustrator which she would learn through her colleagues. From there, she taught herself how to create art with the program and fell in love with the medium.
Much of her thought process can be discerned through her charming use of words. When asked to describe her inspiration, she states, “My work feels like strands of my thoughts that have flown around the universe before coming back to materialize.”[6]It’s evident that she gives ample thought to every piece she creates, easily breathing life into them through her fanciful imagination and conviction of character. In an interview for TimeOut Tokyo, Aoshima further displays her thoughtful nature when asked what initially intrigued her about the relationship between mankind and nature, a common thread throughout her work. Aoshima responded that, “In a big city like Tokyo, it is difficult to get in touch with nature. But in cemeteries, you can see insects, cats and other animals running around amid wild trees and bushes. I like to think of them as oases in the middle of the concrete jungle.”[7]Clearly, Aoshima is far too introspective a person for these thoughts to be contained, and they have been beautifully realized through her art.
Aoshima’s work is sophisticated and intentional, never shying away from obscure or disturbing imagery, yet maintaining pleasantly balanced composition and use of color. Her work is true to the Superflat genre, which is often associated with criticism of post-war Japanese culture, including consumerism and the sexual fetishization of young girls.[8]In pieces likeCity Glow, Aoshima shows off an astute ability to marry the synthetic and natural world. Flora and fauna are set against a night skyline, the buildings warped to resemble young girls with eerily glowing eyes. She questions the ability of mankind, nature, and the spiritual world to coexist and imagines what our reality might resemble in a utopian future where these elements have collided.[9]In a number of other pieces, she takes to creating surreal and intriguing worlds inhabited by young girls. These young girls, while illustrated in a traditionally cute anime style, are in many cases unclothed and in compromising positions. All the while appearing unbothered and docile, the grotesque way these girls are sometimes presented calls into question their over-sexualization within popular culture and media and its disturbing implications. Aoshima’s work resembles traditional Japanese ukiyo-e art in its use of flat colors and bold, thick lines. Together with her use of bright colors and cartoonishly cute depictions of people and objects, Aoshima’s style itself contrasts with her often nightmarish subject matter.
Works Cited:
[1]https://web.archive.org/web/20141114070909/https://www.blumandpoe.com/sites/default/files/press/Juxtapoz0106.pdf
[2]http://www.artnet.com/artists/chiho-aoshima/
[3]http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp/artists/list/C6/
[4]http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp/artists/list/C6/
[5]https://web.archive.org/web/20150504060230/http://magazine.saatchiart.com/culture/reports-from/los-angeles-reports-from/interview_chiho_aoshima
[6]http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp/artists/list/C6/
[7]https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/art/interview-chiho-aoshima
[8]http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/drohojowska-philp/drohojowska-philp1-18-01.asp
[9]http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/chiho