Year: 2022
Medium: wood, acrylic paint
Dimensions: 100 x 10 x 30 cm (39 3/8 x 4 x 11 7/8 in.)
Acquired from KOTARO NUKAGA, 2022
Although painting is the focus of Hirako’s works, he has also demonstrated talent for spatial modeling by creating ceramic works and trying on installation-based display compositions. In this work, “he” is represented by wood carving. The roughly whittled wood surface directly inherits the brush strokes of Hirako’s paintings. A few stacked books serve as a base while “he” stands upright, dressed in vibrant yellow and blue clothes with a striking green head, giving the work a vivid impression. For Hirako, “he” expresses various allegories and symbols within the paintings. His works often juxtapose opposite structures and are placed in relativity, such as plants and artifacts, nature and civilization, awareness and unconsciousness. In many of the world’s myths, there is always a two-faced trickster who sometimes acts as a hero but sometimes behaves as a troublemaker. It is an existence that replaces the multifaceted nature of human beings and human society in an extreme form. At the same time, it also symbolizes the fierceness and grace of nature that does not go as planned. Similarly, while never being ill-mannered, Hirako’s “he” exists as a mirror that reflects the diversity of the world as seen through the artist’s eyes, the multifaceted nature that Hirako holds and the ambiguity that the viewers who are glazing at his works have. The rigid, expressionless, and emotionless stance of “he” therefore opens to mirror our all in which no one is the same as the other.
