Miwa Yanagi at Aoi - Osaka, Japan - Reviews of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Although the much-documented novel Wave of Kansai (Western Japan) from the heady days of the mid-1980s is above this area still produces young artists of considerable talent and originality. individual such is Miwa Yanagi. sole a few years out of graduate gymnasium she has already been included in several museum exhibitions in Japan and Europe upon show at the small Aoi Gallery were scaled-down versions of her large computer-enhanced photographs of pos women

Yanagi's work center upon "elevator girls," those paragons of Japanese etiquette who work as "guides" in the major department stores. The centerpiece, Elevator Girt House 1F (1997) is made up of sum of two units side-by-side photographs (35 1/2 by the agency of 29 1/2 inches rather than the original 94 1/2 by the agency of 79). The left panel present to views numerous uniformed elevator girls fallen in disarray upon a moving walkway (such as base in airports) of which the vanishing point is an ominous dark stain Flanking the walkway are sealed glass cases holding bunch of flowerss of flowers. In the right-hand panel the same girls stand in the glass cases like figures in a wax museum, and the destitute of contents walkway moves toward a lake of light. There is an obvious dream quality to this work and also a pervasive aura of death symbolized by the agency of the tunnels of dark and light. A faculty of perception of doom is underlined by dint of the fallen figures and the funereal flowers.

sum of two units smaller works were also shown In White Casket (1994) a succession of four photographs tells a story of three supine elevator girls in a clinical elevator space who gradually dissolve into a pool of blood which finally forms an attractive pattern of r vesicles on a white background. Although the allegory is real simple, this early piece subserves to introduce the artist's ongoing themes. Yanagi's art, level in this small sampling, demonstrates her skill in manipulating representations of contemporary urban Japanese life.

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