One year since her last exhibition, ENA’s second private exhibition named YAWN will make it’s opening at the creative studio “CONTRAST” run by IN FOCUS from Friday March 31st until Saturday April 8th.
In this exhibition, the portrait works of the f_a_c_e series presented at the previous show will be on display and in addition, the new series from ENA, the YAWN series will be unveiled.
YAWN sets its theme on the concept “yawning,” an action that everyone experiences in their daily life. In cooperation with Mr. Takahiro Ohara, a professor at the psychology department of the Iryo Sosei University and a yawning researcher, by exchanging her own opinion with the researcher from each standpoint, ENA has deepened her insight into what “yawning” is.
As well as the f_a_c_e series, depiction of the “sceneries with yawning” is attempted with various materials and techniques by eliminating the “sign that may have significant influence” on others, i.e., “facial expressions,”
– Artist Statement –
When I faced the situation of our daily life where everyone’s life has totally changed, a scene that I saw on a bus came to my mind.
A child’s “yawning” was passed onto his/her mother, and it was then passed onto an old man nearby.
Witnessing the scene where yawning connected strangers to each other through their unconsciousness made me feel the action as a kind of empathy. I felt the inside of the bus as one kind of world.
I suppose that many of us have seen and experienced such a situation.
“Yawning”, generally speaking, is considered to be a symbol expressing sleepiness, although it is said to
“occur when tension is relieved as well as the body and mind”.
Even though it is an everyday action, the biological role of yawning has not been fully elucidated.
It is something that occurs surpassing age, sex and gender, title, race, religion, social hierarchy and furthermore, and it is something that occurs not only with human beings, but also with some other species such as birds and reptiles.
The contagious yawning that moves from one to another may also be the happiness which is passed on between people.
An action so familiar to us, enabling us to connect to one another through this empathetic effect by just being alive has far more potential than we know.
– Statement of Mr. Takahiro Ohara, a professor at the psychology department of Iryo Sosei University –
Along with the spread of social media and the infectious disease, the way people relate to each other are changing dynamically.
What ENA depicts are the people who come and go in such a stream of time.
Human beings are species that show different personas in accordance with their relationship, surrounding environment, and role in life they have.
The emergence of social media is accelerating the change of these personas, complicating and differentiating them.
In the works of the f_a_c_e series, ENA expressed the variety of colors each human holds. The colors of oneself that are seen and to see, the self that wants to be seen and the self which does not.
The variety of colors that move on and away from each other so as commixing and overlapping, were expressed with the layers of marbling on the faces of portraits.
In a time where contact between people became the undesirable, the theme that ENA focused on for her new work is “yawning.”
Yawning is an everyday action which everyone does although its function and mechanism are indeed profound.
It is said that yawning occurs when physical or mental conditions change, such as in between awakening and sleeping, excitement and boredom.
Yawning, which arises among the changing body and mind then becomes transmittable among people. Beyond age, sex and gender, title, race, religion, and various boundaries that divide people, yawning keeps spreading.
One who unconsciously caught on yawning from another, one who unconsciously transmitted yawning to others, and the people who witnessed these actions form a calm sense of unity, their minds gradually mingle.
During times when contagion is a concern, the physiological phenomenon in which people become one by transmission may be something we should pay attention to again.
In the new work of ENA’s YAWN which sets its theme on yawning, yawning itself is not directly depicted. The faint voice and the vibration of air which occur while yawning, the tension of muscles and the rustle of clothes which occur when we stretch our arms and legs, the soft sunlight and warm fresh air which induce our yawning.
Through these “signs” and “fragments” of yawning, ENA continues to accumulate peaceful time.
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ENA
https://www.instagram.com/e_n_a_58/
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Exhibition Information
Date：2023/3/31(Fri) – 4/8(Sat)
Opening Hours：11:00 – 20:00 (Last day: 11:00 – 18:00)
Entrance：Free
Venue：CONTRAST
Address：1-49-4-1F & B1F Tomigaya, Shibuya, Tokyo
Access：Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line “Yoyogi Park” Exit 1, 1 min walk
Odakyu Odawara Line “Yoyogi Hachiman” Exit South, 2 min walk
HP : https://contrast-tokyo.com/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/contrast_tokyo/
Twitter : https://twitter.com/contrast_tokyo
E-mail : info@contrast-tokyo.com
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Supported by IN FOCUS inc. / zaigoo.inc / TORUS,inc.