Chiho Aoshima’s First Hong Kong Solo Exhibition: 'Our Tears Shall Fly Off Into Outer Space'

Galerie Perrotin will be presenting Chiho Aoshima's solo exhibition 'Our Tears Shall Fly Off Into Outer Space' in Hong Kong. This will be Chiho's premier showcase in Hong Kong, and her first solo show with Galerie Perrotin in Asia. She creates a fantastical exhibition with fairy-like creatures; anthropomorphic trees; wandering nymphs; and apocalyptic scenes of tsunamis. From Chiho's early digital works to her recent recent experimentations with hand-painted ceramics, her works ignite our imaginations with a journey through an 'otherworld' - an invisible yet all-encompassing.

Chiho first garnered global attention from her whimsical imagery that she created digitally in the early 2000s. For the Japanese artist, a digital medium offers versatility, allowing her works to be printed as inkjet or chromogenetic prints. Chiho's large-scale murals in London’s Gloucester Road Underground Station and New York’s Union Square Subway station slowed down the rapid pace of the cities, and prompted passers-by to pause at her anthropomorphic skyscrapers.

With no formal training in art, Chiho has honed her technique in watercolour drawings, producing several hundred works in the last few years. The characters in her works retain a fantastical and imaginary charm, with some engaging in lively banter. Chiho's imagery of spirits, goddesses, nymphs, plants, and even buildings, are filled with vitality in her paintings and gain more vivacity through her video work. 

Chiho is an artist that does not limit herself in the mediums that she uses, delving into the realms of video and ceramics to express her whimsical artistry. Her collaboration with New Zealand-based animator Bruce Fergusen resulted in some of her most compelling works to date. Her first animated work, 'City Glow' (2005), comprises a cynical narrative in which a day elapses into a seven-minute loop. Chiho's interest in ceramics was born out of a casual suggestion from a friend four years prior, and this prompted Chiho to create hand-moulded and intimately sized pieces.

Chiho has a deep interest in the traditions of Japnese religion; the Shintō, or kami-no-michi, in particular is seen throughout her work. For Chiho, she believes in impact of spirituality that transcends inescapable realities of the world, such as the cycle of death and rebirth.

"The evolution of human civilisation is great; humankind thinks nature precious, but it is difficult for humankind and nature to coexist. I represented these two souls that cannot understand each other through images of buildings and mountains.” - Chiho Aoshima

About the Artist

Chiho Aoshima started her art practice in the 1990s, rising to prominence with the international debut of her masterful, digitally rendered work in the acclaimed Superflat exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2001. A self-taught artist and an early member of the Japanese art collective Kaikai Kiki, she began working in Adobe Illustrator before expanding into traditional mediums such as drawing, watercolour, and ceramics. Otherworldly figures and dream-like landscapes depicting child-like spirits, anthropomorphic flora, fauna, and even skyscrapers, feature in Aoshima’s Illustrator-drawn prints, murals, hand-painted works, and digital animations.

About the Gallery

Founded in 1990, Galerie Perrotin changed locations eight times since the beginning, exploring three different neighbourhoods in Paris before settling down in the Marais in 2007. The gallery now occupies two floors in an elegant 18th century hotel particulier. Willing to open a space overseas, the gallery opened a branch of 1300 m2 in Miami from 2004 to 2010, giving the possibility to get in contact with local artists such as Hernan Bas and Daniel Arsham. In May 2012, Galerie Perrotin finally landed in Hong Kong in a 8,000 square-feet space in Connaught Road, Central, designed by the architect Andre Fu of design studio AFSO, to be part of the flourishing Asian market. Emmanuel Perrotin, the founder of the gallery, has represented some of the world’s most famous artists, including Takashi Murakami and Maurizio Cattelan, for over 20 years.The gallery also represents important French artists, such as Sophie Calle, Bernard Frize, Xavier Veilhan, Tatiana Trouvé, Jean-Michel Othoniel, and international artists (Elmgreen&Dragset, Wim Delvoye, Gelitin, Paola Pivi, Farhad Moshiri, Daniel Arsham, Bharti Kher, Kaz Oshiro, and Kaws). 
 

Exhibition Dates: 26 September - 14 November 2020
Address: 807, K11 ATELIER Victoria Dockside, 19 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong 
Opening Times: Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 7pm

Interested in Chiho Aoshima? Get in touch! contact@theartling.com