DAD

DAD, 2023, Selected Solo Exhibition, BUoY Arts Center Tokyo

Installation view from the solo exhibition DAD, 2023

This marked the artist's debut solo exhibition as an emerging artist. Centered around the titular video work DAD, the exhibition presented a body of work that directly confronts the domestic violence she suffered at the hands of her father.

In the video work DAD, the artist relentlessly berates her late father, pouring out the abuse she endured. Towards the end, she begins to repeatedly bid him farewell, waving her hand. Through this accusation, the work exposes the distorted dependency with her perpetrator father, as well as the lasting trauma the family continues to carry even in his absence. It questions the violence of the patriarchal system within society and the pain inflicted on victims.

Furthermore, by addressing the potential for aggression within the victim and acknowledging that victims possess a humanity that is not always "good," the artist shatters the stereotyped image of the victim to present both "hope" and "reality."

Other exhibited works included Father's Buddhist Altar, featuring the actual altar; Father's Gaze, presenting film photographs taken by her father during his lifetime; and The Weeping Woman, a performance video expressing the suffering inherent in the female gender experience.

[Exhibition Concept]

My artistic practice has consistently addressed the hardships and struggles faced by both myself and others within this society. For instance, works such as The Weeping Woman and Japanese Women Make Me Sick express, from my perspective as a directly affected individual, the oppression I experience as a woman.

I believe that by narrating intensely personal and painful experiences through my art, I can make invisible social issues visible.

The work DAD stems from the premature death of my abusive father. Having hoped for a future reconciliation, I was left to suffer through a reality of unimaginable severity. I created this work with the desire to share this anguish with others. DAD manifests the issues of the patriarchal system that existed within my family. Similarly, Japanese society is permeated by these same patriarchal issues at every level.

I believe that society is formed by us as individuals. Social problems cannot be truly resolved unless we—despite potentially not being fully satisfied with our individual lives—can still find some form of hope amidst our struggles. True resolution comes when every person can find acceptance and conviction in living their own life.

Japan lags behind in gender equality, and this delay generates suffering for us as individuals. By refusing to dismiss individual experiences, I use my art to question those who remain unaware and the society that has long ignored this violence.