"You’re everything"
oil on canvas
727mm*500mm
STATEMENT
My painting inspiration comes from video clips of theatre and musicals on YouTube. My practice involves building up layers of pigment to form the fragile existence of the human being.
I am committed to depicting the humanity that can easily disappear.
I often paint backup dancers dancing behind a subject.
They’re dancing in unison, in identical, shiny yellow outfits. You can’t tell how many people are dancing; their names escape the moment, symbolising beauty in its purest form. I intend to capture those intangible figures on a display.
I am a Japanese woman who grew up in Japan. Japan is a collectivist society. You have to get rid of your ego and be a team player; that's a virtue in Japan. While I'm behaving like a model Japanese woman, I can't stop looking at Western culture, such as theatre, musicals, and politics. The idea of the West seems like a dreamland to me. People sing about feminism and equality on stage. Just as everyone paints their favourite landscapes, I'm painting my dreamland, a Western culture that I observe every day. My painting is personal. I paint my dream landscape in silence as an escape, so in parallel, I can blend in with the society that is Japan.
演劇やミュージカルのyoutube動画の映像から着想を得ている。薄い絵の具の層を重ねることで、朦朧と人間の存在を浮かび上がらせるように描く。簡単に消え失せそうな人間の存在を表現すること。例えばバックダンサーを描くことが多い。彼らは同じ振り付けで動き、同じ黄色い衣装を着て、何人の「彼ら」がいるか映像からはわからない。個人の名前さえ消えたその時、美しさを感じる。映像に映る触ることのできないその存在を描こうとしている。
BIO
Eri Ueno is a contemporary painter. Her work focuses on exploring the boundaries of humanity that can easily disappear. She holds a BA from Nagoya University of Arts. In 2019, at the beginning of her artistic career, she practiced installation, film, photography, and interviewing people who have been marginalised in Japan, such as immigrants. She was awarded a 2019 Nakagawa Canal Artist Fellowship. As the project grew, she felt an immense sense of guilt for exploiting the stories of marginalised people in the name of art. These experiences have been key for her in approaching other artistic mediums, mainly oil painting.
Ueno's paintings have been regularly exhibited in Tokyo and Nagoya.
上野英里は現代画家である。彼女の作品は、簡単に消えてしまう人間の境界線を探ることに重点を置いている。名古屋芸術大学卒業。2019年、芸術家としてのキャリアをスタートさせるにあたり、インスタレーション、映像、写真、移民など日本で疎外されてきた人々へのインタビューを実践。2019年度中川運河Artoc10から助成金を取得。プロジェクトが大きくなるにつれ彼女は芸術の名の下に周縁化された人々の物語を利用することに計り知れない罪悪感を感じるようになった。これらの経験は彼女にとって油絵を中心とした他の芸術媒体にアプローチする際の鍵となった。上野の絵画は東京と名古屋で定期的に展示されている。
