『Falling woman』

Artist: O JUN

For the first time in five years, since the exhibition Paper Sumo held in 2015, Gallery KIDO Press is holding an exhibition of works by O JUN, titled Korobu Onna (Falling　 woman ). This time, the artist presents images of "falling" through monotypes.

Besides Korobu Onna, from which the exhibition takes its name, the titles of works include Haigo de Korobu Otoko (Man Behind Falling), Ketto (Duel), and Ishi no yo ni Korogaru (Rolling Like a Stone). As this suggests, they even go beyond human depictions as they display falling forms in various ways.

With his rare skills, the artist renders the temporal sense, tension, and surprise felt as space seems to turn upside down that are all born instantaneously in the act of falling down.

For this exhibition, O JUN produced only monotypes, a one-shot mode of expression that does not permit any reworking. Making further prints with the ink remaining on the plate after the first printing, he elicits ghostly images that convey a transient, blurred impression. Through this process, he deftly portrays the figures of the falling bodies that he is attempting to apprehend.

Monotype production strewed the surfaces of O JUN's works with numerous types of depiction that could not have been painted.

Based on his production of monotypes for this exhibition, O JUN is extending his reach to the further development of his art through lithographs, which he is already pursuing in parallel, toward the perfection of his artistic expression.

We earnestly hope to see you at this new exhibition.

* Tentative translations

Monotype: A type of printmaking process. Monoprints are made by printing images painted on the plate. The same print can only be made once. Additional prints made by printing with the paint still left on the plate are called "ghosts."

Artist statement

I fell down!
I wanted to depict what we see in the instant that we take a fall. We may fall in the home or outside, after stumbling, slipping, or being shot. It's okay. The world is not a bottomless abyss. The floor or the ground is there, waiting to catch us, or even embrace us. In the interval of less than a second until then, the world shows us all sorts of things. It stands ready and waiting for us to fall, in order to do so. Fall!