About "family" and "G.F."

Online Solo Exhibition "the night falls" These two pieces share a common theme, so I'd like to bring them together.

This solo exhibition work was created in June 2020, during the period of self-restraint due to CO-VID19.

One of the major events that occurred during this period was the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in the United States.

This was the beginning of the "Black Lives Matter" movement against racial discrimination, and its details were immediately known in faraway Japan.

I've heard that the goal of this movement is to get the police to take a hard look at internal racist behavior as an organization.

But you and I both know that there are more important things to do than that.

This is that - Every person has a family, a life and a life of their own, and no one has the right to ignore that.

Seeing a few of George Floyd's selfies and the video of his brother giving a speech afterwards, I felt this strongly and decided to transmit it as art.

"family" and "G.F." use a black Japanese fountain pen ink called "Chiku-tan" (means bamboo charcoal) .

After using various black inks, I found that "Chiku-tan" turns like a black skin color in the sodium hypochlorite solution I use. So I thought this would be an appropriate material for me, as a Japanese person, to use to describe black people.

About "family"

First, I paint white rose as a memorial to the people who died in racism, but I began to think that I shouldn't paint just that. I didn't want to stop at memorials.

One of the flower words for yellow roses is "hope".

A single rose is a family bond. A child and a large flower are connected to each other.

And don't you think a bright, strong yellow rose fits the generosity and resilience of black people who "still stand up for themselves" better than a white one? I wanted to draw it as a constellation, so it got modest piece.

About "G.F."

This silhouette was designed based on George Floyd's selfies.

In this selfie, I noted the brand-new, regularly arranged bricks in his background. From my visit this year, it seemed to me that bricks have long been used as a building material in the U.S., and that they have become part of the living environment. (In Japan, where earthquakes are more common, bricks are not often used as a building material these days.)

While reminiscing about George's life in the past, he has become starlights that makes us continue to think about many things even after he has gone to the sky.

I used several pigments including glitters to create this piece of work with various shades of gold.

Materials (both 2 works) : Fountain pen ink pilot iroshizuku "Chiku-tan" pigment inks sodium hypochlorite solution