Sad but strangely satisfying
As you enter the Hayward Gallery, Yoshitomo Nara has placed his piece called Place Like Home, a warmly-lit cottage that evokes fairy tales from childhood. Next to it is a collage of 351 LP covers from his vinyl collection ‘that he finds particularly inspiring’. After that pleasant greeting of family togetherness we slowly descend into the hell of Nara’s own mind, writes Michael Holland.
This is the first solo exhibition in the UK for the Japanese artist and rather than take us through his life as he grows up and evolves, the journey is the same but as seen through the eyes of innocent children.
As Nara reflects on natural and man-made disasters we relive them through the impact it has on the young. A dangerous world that is stood up to and challenged by the direct, confrontational gaze of a generation that asks for more, for better.
As you travel through the gallery you realise that the exhibition is one with no joy, no hope, no smiles, that the viewers are not animated, not discussing the work with any sense of excitement but have become as one with the art: sad, melancholy, frightened maybe. Everywhere we see these ‘cute’ kids finding another barrier to happiness, another barricade to enjoying life but they keep striving to overcome.
This exhibition may lower your mood and make you think about the walls put up to hinder your own contentment with life, but it is strangely satisfying.
Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX until 31st August.
Booking and Full Details: www.southbankcentre.co.uk
