Tokyo, Japan- waitingroom will be showing the solo exhibition “Across the Hill” by Shoko MORITA through October 19th to November 24th, 2013. She is a painter who focus on the theme, “the shift from reality to fantasy,” and it is her third time to present her work at our gallery. It has been 2 years since her last exhibition, “Flowers of Thunder,” which was held here in 2011. At this show, she is will present her latest paintings that emotionally capture the distinguishing line between reality and fantasy.
MORITA was born in Toyoama prefecture and now lives in Tokyo. After leaving Musashino Art University’s Department of Imaging and Sciences, she completed her studies at Aichi Prefectural Seto Pottery Senior High School in 1999, then graduated from Setsu Mode Seminar in 2005. Her recent shows include solo exhibitions, “Wearing a Misty Night,” (waitingroom, Tokyo) in 2011, and “through the fog” (Satellite, Okayama) in 2005. Also she took part in the group exhibition, “Deah, Shuturum” (Nagoya Civic Gallery Yada, Aichi) in 2013. She grasps the concept of painting three dimensionally, and starts her piece by creating the board, which will become the base of her work, into round and demented shapes. The thick layers of paint not only gives texture and depth to her artwork, but also represent the layers of memory. MORITA states that memories are usually something we only remember a part of, or sometimes even make up unconsciously; however, the ‘feeling in the air’ of the memory leaves a significant impression. She strives to paint the touch of this ‘feeling in the air’ that remains deeply in people’s minds.
MORITA says she wants to discover the wondrous orders that ubiquitously exist in this world by creating works of objects and events that has two sides, and placing them in the same context. All the things we wondered and questioned as a child has become “common senses” and “absolute rules” as we grew up; simultaneously, our senses to “wonder” and to “be curious” for new things have faded away. MORITA’s work remind us viewers to remember and feel these senses again.
The title of this exhibition, “Across the Hill” is named to from the thought that the real world of the”common sense” and the “magical” parallel world may not be opposites, but rather two worlds that are continuous. It’s not “the other side,” but it’s “the Otherside Hill.” In her works the world before our birth, the world of the dead, imaginations, and delusions are presented as places where the boundary line between the everyday life is blurred. Please come and enjoy her latest paintings, 10 large and small, and several drawings, at our gallery.
