Shintaro Miyake

“ATUMORI”

installation view from ATSUMORI, 2005
 ©Shintaro Miyake

【Introduction】

Miyake’s art works are drawings, sculptures and performances and any other art forms. But his most typical style of art can be represented cutout pieces which Miyake draws girls and other forms on the cardbord or thin wooden board. Also performance is the characteristic one that he puts handmade custumes on and having performance such as live drawing. Typical motif that Miyake often uses is that the girl called. Horizontally long face with small feature and extremely short body with lanky limbs looks mirthful and gives us an optimistic impression, even if they have sad appearance.
Recently, idea of sweetness gains popularity among especially Japanese contemporary art. It seems that Miyake demands a thorough investigation the idea of sweetness, but this is not a core idea of his work. Idea of sweetness for Miyake is just if things look positive. His Sweet-san series is the basic form of the idea of sweetness. In 2003, Miyake had the solo exhibition called “SWEET SUMMER”at Tomio Koyama Gallery. Since then, his Sweet-san has been changing it own form. For instance, Sweet-san puts motif of Colosseo on her head in an exhibition in Bologne, Sweet-san transforms herself to an alien in an exhibition in Germany, and Sweet-san becomes a girl who dances with a bear in an exhibition in New Zealand.

【Concept】

This time, Miyake has chosen the subject of Japanesecivil war period (Sengoku era, 1467-1615) “Atsumori”was an officer of the Heike clan, and was killed at the Ichinotani battle by Kumagai Naozane who was one of the officers of the Genji clan. Traditional Japanese Noh play “Atsumori” is based on “THe Tale of Heike” and play is about the sorrow of Atsumori’s death. Miyake dipicts the scene of military commanders who fought in the battle. The audience will glimpse the world of full of feverish excitement of this battle in his work. In addition, there will be a 3 meter height huge sclupture work in this exhibition, and of course Miyake’s performance will be held in the opening day.
This will be the second times he is having an exhibition at Tomio Koyama Gallery since 2003.

  • Installation view from "ATSUMORI" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2005
 ©Shintaro Miyake