NYAB Event - "BA KA SU" Mieko Yuki

"BA KA SU" Mieko Yuki

Ippodo Gallery

This event has ended.

The Ippodo Gallery presents Bakasu, an exhibition of ceramic figurines by Mieko Yuki. Yuki, an actress renowned for her work on stage and in films and television, has asserted a compelling identity with her uniquely expressive ceramic figurines. The title for her exhibition is the Japanese word for the capacity to bewitch and to change identities. Chinese and Japanese traditionally associated that ability with the fox, and Yuki exercises a fox-like magic in bringing life to her figurines and in creating different roles in her dramatic work.

Bakasu is Yuki’s tribute to that animal which is synonymous with craftiness. Japanese of old revered the fox as an agricultural divinity—a servant of the gods that rid fields of burrowing animal pests. White foxes were a subject of special devotion, worshipped at tens of thousands of inari jinja, “Fox shrines,” across the nation. The powerful hold of the fox on the Japanese imagination is evident in the crafty animal’s frequent appearance in fairy tales, noh dramas, and kabuki plays. Foxes figure in several common expressions in Japanese, reflecting their intimate connection with the nation’s culture. For instance, Japanese refer to a sudden rain on a generally clear day as “a fox’s wedding.” The idea is that the secretive foxes summon the rain to conceal their nuptials from human eyes. Westerners, of course, also have had a special feeling toward the fox, as seen in its frequent appearance in Aesop’s Fables and Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

[Image: Mieko Yuki "Shuki Kannon" H30W20D38in ]

Media

• Sculpture
• Ceramics

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