Fuyuko Matsui…
Though I never got around to writing about it, when I was in Tokyo last, I went to see the first major exhibition of work by Fuyuko Matsui: “Becoming friends with all the children of the world,” at the . I probably didn’t write about it because it was a such a sensory overload at the time, and it’s taken a while for the whole experience to settle – but in a word, it was dark. I mean as deep and dark as any nightmare – as equally as frightening and upsetting too. There is nothing subtle about the mental anguish and madness her figures suffer in dismemberment and decomposition. But I still enjoyed the show. At a technical level, it was really interesting to get up close and see how Nihonga paintings are made, and fortunately a lot of her initial sketches and proofs were included in the display. Deconstructing the work (post mortem..ha ha) was really interesting and educational. The themes of madness and despair were alienating and difficult to decode, but that lent itself to the insanity really, of trying to express the inexpressible. Check out more of her work here at the Yokohama Museum of Art website.