The first solo exhibition at YIRI ARTS, ‘Unfortunately I love you,' showcases a significant series of new works by the Japanese artist Aya Ito. This exhibition hints at a blend of melancholy, love, and introspection woven into her diverse artistic expression. It may evoke a feeling of fragmented stories or a narrative made of scattered pieces, aiming to articulate the overarching illusion of the entire exhibition with a hint of humor. Through her artworks, Ito leads the audience into an unconventional theatrical reality, inviting them to roam freely within a radiant realm of imagination.
Adorable creatures, hardly identifiable as such, could be more aptly described as cartoon symbols straight from Aya Ito's memory. They sport smiles and awkwardness, collaged within her painterly world. Characters and figures often emerge with white edges forming a collage-like texture, appearing as if cartoon stickers affixed onto the canvas. It's a paradoxical state, seeming both isolated and tightly integrated, floating along a jelly-like path between reality and illusion.
Aya Ito draws creative inspiration from her childhood spent in orchards, daily encounters with popular culture imagery, and a passion for electronic music. These elements imbue her artworks with a techno-party vibe, blending technology with vivid flashes of imagery. Before starting her paintings, Ito meticulously constructs intricate sets, encompassing everything from arranging mysterious ribbons and cartoon cutouts to sculpting characters and orchestrating lighting. These details serve as essential material for setting the stage in her artistic theater. Scenes are captured through photography, digitally processed, and serve as the basis for her paintings. This approach gives her creations a dreamlike and daring quality while preserving Ito's unique sense of space and narrative essence.
Rabbits vomiting magenta-colored split tongues (or jelly), blue-purple hands cradling a peculiar man, a cord-like or worm-like structure, along with dolls bearing suggestive imagery, and a man transformed into a bed. This mist, reminiscent of a thin layer of oil, slowly drifts around us. Her works capture life's randomness and insignificance, employing a visual technique akin to parallel universes to narrate the story of 'Unfortunately I love you.' Perhaps Ito's fragmented visual language within the canvas responds to her longing for dreams, expressing a poetic affection that, like a witch's spell, captivatingly draws the audience's gaze. It's an unfortunate yet mesmerizing allure, leaving one deeply enamored with this charmingly peculiar gem.