Kaoruko

Gallery Affiliations: Mike Weiss Gallery

Region: Northeast

A series of four paintings in the Aroma Series is my new challenge to express the sense of smell; something “invisible” to our eyes but visible on canvas. Women’s ability to bare children is one of the most blessed gifts that women possess, but at the same time women are human beings—our hair grows under our arms, and our nails get longer. We produce unpleasantness such as disagreeable body odor. However, that unpleasant body odor of a woman can be very agreeable, cherishing and sensual to a man who truly loves her. The Aroma Series is a great tale of love. I use traditional kimono patterns for silkscreen, which young Japanese women wore for formal occasions 200 years ago, to capture very private moments of modern Japanese women. Each kimono pattern describes different seasons and has different meanings depending on the occasions of wear. In this series, the traditional and the modern, the desirable and the repulsive, the private and public create a milieu of what it is to be a modern woman today.