Today, we held Denise Kehoe solo exhibition and her artist talk "YABAI Project".
On a part of wall in the exhibition room, there were lots of pieces of paper drawn scribbles on, which anyone has seen somewhere in Japan...
Actually they were the paper for customers to test pens in stationery shops, gathered by her going around in the center of Sapporo.
Additionally, there were other works which she created, being inspired by the papers as she caught them as abstract paintings or contemporary art works; for instance, ones are pieces of the papers with stitches going on drawings and fabrics as frames, and others are interactive, canvases for visitors to test pens.
Though the papers are familiar to Japanese, the ways and perspectives to create those works are unique to her capturing the papers as materials for the art.
By the way, "YABAI" is the word she learned in the early time of her stay in Japan, which is interesting and weird for her, so she named the title of this exhibition "YABAI project".
According to her, "No way!" has similar meaning to "YABAI", though there isn't the word completely meaning " YABAI" in English.
Akiko