IDENTITY
This series explores the concept of identity and features key locations appearing in “Reflection”. The characters wear masks that represent their “public face”, and their bodies bear the traces of their journey. The symbol of the mask is chosen here to illustrate a paradox: they are means of communication because they convey carefully constructed identities, but they also prevent communication by covering the mouth and facial expressions. The compositions that depict Japanese everyday scenes mixed with elements of the Western lifestyle represent a broader and more global identity landscape: on the one hand, a country with a strong sense of imagined collective identity but reportedly struggling to give space to the creation and development of individual identities. On the other hand, a part of the world affected by a multiple identity crisis from a national perspective but where individual identity tends to be cultivated. In both cases, imagined identities become tools for political communication with real social, geographical and economic impacts. The works in this series aim to reflect the adversity and unions that arise from these issues.
