Asahi Village 130th anniversary commemorationThe Catastrophe of Death and Regeneration
Hikari Shimoda Exhibition

A session
July 7 [Sat] - August 26 [Sun] of 2018.
Venue
Asahi Art Museum1308 Komi, Asahi Village, Nagano Prefecture 390-1104
Opening hours
9:00–17:00［Last entry time: until16:30］
Closed day
Mondays ［* Exceptions:7/16 is open,7/17 is closed］
Admission fee
Adult :800 yen,
high school / college student :500 yen,
elementary and junior high school student :200 yen,
child nursery school child or less:free
Sponsorship
Asahi Art Museum, Asahi Village Board of Education, Asahi Village
□Contact Us
Asahi Art Museum
TEL:+81-263-99-2359（0263-99-2359）
FAX:+81-263-99-3624（0263-99-3624）
E-mail:asahi-museum@vill.asahi.nagano.jp

Artist site｜http://www.hikarishimoda.com/

開催要項｜Guidelines

Asahi Art Museum in Asahi Village will hold “ The Catastrophe of Death and Regeneration Hikari Shimoda Exhibition ” in this year that 130 years since the Asahi village was established.
Shimoda Hikari was born in Asahi village, Nagano Prefecture in 1984.
After graduating from Kyoto Saga Art University College of Junior College in 2005, she studied for 2 years at Illustration Aoyama Juku with the aim of becoming an illustrator.
After that, she started walking the path of contemporary artists in pursuit of her expression.
Shimoda projects “a sense of anxiety to the chaotic contemporary era that will predict the end of the century” and “a feeling of loneliness of people seeking salvation” to characters that reminiscent of children and heroes, and works with their own illustrations.
She chose the child that before the establishment of the identity as a motif of her works.
The vague expression of a child with an odd appearance that is close-up is meant not only for loneliness and anxiety, but also contradictions and unreasonableness of the world, and is intended to problem-presentation for modern society.
This is the Shimoda Hirari’s first Exhibition in Asahi Village where is her hometown. She is now trying to be active in the world and she has fans in all over the world through the internet.
In this exhibition, it will introduce about 40 works from the beginning to the new work of the past decade that started working as a contemporary artist.

展示作品｜Works

個展開催にあたって｜Artist statement

ここ10年、人類は大きな価値観のゆらぎの時代に突入したように思う。既存の価値観は廃れ、見直され、人間そのものが再評価されようとしている。自身の価値観を見直す行為はたいていの場合苦痛を伴い、軋轢が生まれる。あらゆる正義のみが存在し、悪意ではなく感情と正義によって争いが発生する。
この進化の果てに人類はどこに行きつくのか。ともすればお互いに殺し合う絶滅の道を歩んではいないか。現代は大きな破局（カタストロフィ）に突入したように思われる。
この混沌とした世界で寄る辺の無くなった我々は、どう生きていけばいいのだろう。何に救いを求めるのだろう。

美術家として活動を始めて10年。当初自分自身を描く事から始まり、自分の中に見つけた孤独と不安はそのままに、今は人種や性別を超えた人間そのものの存在、また現在そして未来の人間社会を描き出す事を主題としている。そこに答えは無く、つかみ取った世界の断片を見つめ、共有し、一人一人新しく考えを持つ事が、破滅の結末を再生へと繋げる一歩となるのではないか。
曖昧でおぼろげな現代というものの姿の一旦を提示する展覧会になる事を願っている。

Today we are living in a world which is full of difficulties. Wars, starvation, and poverty are visible problems, and there are many people suffering from psychiatric disorders and social unrest which is invisible to the others.

Thanks to the internet, everyone has an easy access to declare opinions. However, this just brings about frequent conflict and friction from differing opinions and disagrees. We are always under pressure of being criticized or blamed for what we are talking. In other words, attacks of words are always beside us. However, no one realizes that they are having their words as arms. Those who can attack others has arms, and their arms could be knowledge and education. On the other hand, people who doesn’t have a way to raise own voices have to live with suppression. They are “invisible” people in the world.

Human has been faced to a time of flexible values in the last 10 years. Things we had depended on are already old, and every single value of things has been changing. Value of human is not the exception. When one reevaluates one’s value, the person would suffer from gaps between new regulations and what he or she used to lean on. Everyone believes that their regulation and law are the only justices in the world, as a result, the world is filled with a lot of justices. There are many kinds of justice and principles, and differences and gaps bring about quarrels to wars. I wonder where human being goes as a result of progress and evolution. This way might lead us to destruction by killing each other. The world seems to get in a time of huge catastrophe. We don’t have anything to rely on...how should we human live in this chaotic place? What could save us from here?

It’s been a ten years since I chose my life as an artist. I started creating art works which express myself, with loneliness and despair I found in myself. Now my brushes paint human being as a whole existence beyond distinctions such as races and sexes. I also focus on creating work which reflects human society and its future. I am still having loneliness and despair, and I haven’t come across any conclusion yet. We should put our eyes on every single piece of this world, share it, and exchange opinions. Those behavior might prevent us from destruction, and make a future step for human being. I hope this exhibition would show some ambiguous and obscure pieces of this world today.

イベント情報｜Event Information

Gallery Talk - The artist Shimoda Hikari talks about her artworks
July 15 (Sun) 13:30〜
in Asahi Art Museum Exhibition Room (* Entrance fee required)
Hikari Shimoda Talk show - Acting as an artist in modern Japan
August 11 (Sat) 13:30〜 in Asahi Art Museum Exhibition Room (* Entrance fee required)

交通アクセス｜Access

□ In case of coming by car
  • From Tokyo>
    Hachioji IC (Central Expressway approximately 157 km) Okaya JCT (Nagano Expressway approximately 11 km)
    Shiojiri IC (About 13km to the museum)
  • From Nagoya>
    Komaki IC (Central Expressway approximately 170 km) Okaya JCT (Nagano Expressway approximately 11 km)
    Shiojiri IC (About 13km to the museum)
  • From Hokuriku direction>
    Joetsu IC (Hokuriku Expressway · Joetsu Expressway approximately 91 km)
    Koshoku JCT (Nagano Expressway about 50 km) Matsumoto IC (About 17km to the museum)
□ In case of coming by train
  • From Tokyo>
    JR Shinjuku Station JR Shiojiri Station or Matsumoto Station
    [JR Chuo Main Line・Super Azusa (about 2 hours 30 minutes) or Limited Express Azusa (about 3 hours)]
  • From Nagoya>
    JR Nagoya StationJR Shiojiri Station or JR Matsumoto Station
    [JR Central Chuo Main Line・Express Shinano (about 2 hours)]
□ In case of coming by high-speed bus
  • From Tokyo>
    Busta Shinjuku Matsumoto Bus Terminal (about 3 hours and 20 minutes)
  • From Nagoya>
    Meitetsu Bus CenterMatsumoto Bus Terminal (about 3 hours 30 minutes)
  • From Osaka>
    Hankyu Sanban-gai Bus TerminalMatsumoto Bus Terminal (about 5 hours 50 minutes)
□ From JR Shiojiri station to the Asahi Art Museum
About 20 minutes by taxi from JR Shiojiri station (boarding fee 3, 500 ~ 4,000 yen)
◎ Since the number of buses from the station to the museum is very limited, please be sure to check in advance.

If you have any questions about access to the Asahi Art Museum, please contact us by email at the address below. email asahi-museum@vill.asahi.nagano.jp

CLOSE
□ From JR Matsumoto station / Matsumoto Bus Terminal to Asahi Art Museum
About 30 minutes by taxi from JR Matsumoto station (boarding fee 6, 000 ~ 7,000 yen)
◎ Since the number of buses from the station to the museum is very limited, please be sure to check in advance.

If you have any questions about access to the Asahi Art Museum, please contact us by email at the address below. email asahi-museum@vill.asahi.nagano.jp

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