KINJO:Blind Gaze

9 - 30 April 2022 YIRI ARTS

KINJO once said that, since he was a child, he had always been very concerned about other people's eyes or sight. This is the reason that he gave, when he started to use 'eyes' for he inspiration as the recurring theme in his creations. However, he deliberately chose to use a less scary, abstract, somewhat anime-style of shape to express the concept of 'eye'. This method of drawing by simplifying the shape and paring it right back to its most basic form, while using a white background as the white of the eye, originated from Kinjo's favourite modes of artistic expression, such as animation culture and movies. In traditional paintings, such as religious paintings in the Middle Ages, the gaze or sight of a portrait usually represents some obscure emotions or subtle directional clues.

Although KINJO's creative content also uses eyes as the central theme, it it not grounded in a concrete character as such. Instead, he uses a different approach: his way of expressing the 'character', is by integrating his sight into the space or object, erasing the entity of being able to view the character. Through this, there is a feeling of being that has a sense of existence, but is not a physical entity. A parallel can be drawn here to this approach being reminiscent of the interaction and engagement that occurs on social media networks. As an example, strangers click 'like' on each other's on social media posts and comment in the related threads, or perhaps add their own views to the post's topic of conversation. In the previous one's eyes series, entitled 'Semi-urban, Semi-suburban' exhibition, KINJO painted under the dry bridge piers in the city or on the walls down by the river. Unlike on previous occasions, this exhibition space is housed in a closed basement with neither urban buildings, rivers nor crowds. He therefore chose to use cardboard boxes to build a light installation, aiming to create a viewing experience in a confined space that would focus viewers' attention towards of his creations, thus transforming the active-passive relationship between the painting and the viewer.