| Childhood is the most uncertain period in human life, both physically and psychologically. A group exhibition, “Little Monsters,” presents four different artists whose works express an idea of children as sentimentalized creatures in uncertain reality. Selected works range from painting and drawing to silkscreen print, all with fantastical scenes and nostalgia. Maria Isabel Arango expresses that children “belong to someone else.” The children in her paintings don’t exist as individuals, they are tied to others by imaginary threads. |  |
Little Monsters – Tomoko Ashikawa
Childhood is the most uncertain period in human life, both physically and psychologically. A group exhibition, “Little Monsters,” presents four different artists whose works express an idea of children as sentimentalized creatures in uncertain reality. Selected works range from painting and drawing to silkscreen print, all with fantastical scenes and nostalgia.
Maria Isabel Arango expresses that children “belong to someone else.” The children in her paintings don’t exist as individuals, they are tied to others by imaginary threads. The threads are also attached to their past and future, seeking out elements of their existence. Yet, they fail to find the way and are stuck “in a created fantasy world, never wanting to grow up.” Arango offers the idea that these threads link people not only in childhood, but also in our society.
Jodi Brown is interested in twisting popular imagery and cultural iconography to realize unpleasant realities that American culture attempts to deny. In her latest series, “Nick,” she breaks apart and re-assembles traditional images of children with Santa Claus. A friendly guy with a big white beard in a red suit is usually the icon of Santa Claus, surrounded by children with faces filled with glee. In “Nick,” Brown questions these traditional Christmas images by creating an unfamiliar, old and ugly guy out of Santa, while making the children filled with fear.
Fay Ku often shows children as an army fighting in a war scene. The little figures hold guns, lances and all sorts of weapons and point them toward invisible enemies. They become dangerous collectives, yet with a sense of innocence and ignorance. Ku creates imaginary war scenarios with these little characters to make the disturbing scenes into a fairy tale.
Hiroyuki Nakamura creates immature-looking characters who are disturbed in their sexuality. These characters are “at a vulnerable, bleak and unstable moment of life” and seek out a way to express their own beauty. They could be innocent and pure as well as violent and unfamiliar, living in the perfect world they imagined.
