PROFILE: MAIO MOTOKO
MIXING FORMAL TRADITION WITH MODERN THEMES AND STYLES, THIS JAPANESE SCREEN AND INSTALLATION ARTIST HAS CAPTIVATED ART LOVERS AROUND THE WORLD.
Mixing formal tradition with modern themes, this Japanese artist has captivated art lovers
ON THE SURFACE OF IT, the screens of Japanese artist Maio Motoko are the fine art equivalent of transformers — the fictional species that conceal their alternate purpose and personality in compact form. They unfold from unassuming solids into powerful other beings that bring drama and new dimension to the space they inhabit. In their formal essence, they are the decorative arts embodiment of Japanese culture. In their concept and crafting they are a major departure from it. To fully appreciate the radical achievement of Motoko — the former Paris model, who is exhibiting at Lesley Kehoe Galleries in Melbourne this summer — one has to understand the stubborn vertical structure of Japan’s traditional studio system. Its disciples seek to ‘absorb’ the secrets of a studio master whose honorififific can only be earned after decades of technical virtuosity and near mystical acquisition of knowledge — meaning no one under 70 typically sets the bar for talent in Tokyo and beyond. Motoko inserted herself into this rigorous milieu, with studio-flouting 13-panel screens, the graduating folds of which compact into trapezoid sculptures. These pieces acknowledge formal tradition while transcending it with outrageously unorthodox materials — rusted iron, blackened silver, weathered silk — all working to express abstract concepts that countenance the concerns and contradictions of the modern world. Her interests are the Freudian province of Western art production. “It’s why she is less recognised in Japan,” says gallery owner Lesley Kehoe, who first made overtures to ‘Maio-san’ in 2000 after spotting her work in a magazine at Narita airport. “But the West looks with an objectivity that is unencumbered by tradition. In 2013, I sold Life’s Symphony (2011) — a major pair of six-panel folding screens with brilliant gold leaf background — to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It’s the seriously open-minded curators who are collecting for the next 100 years and who recognise her major talent and importance.” Reversing to a side covered in ink-soaked paper, silver leaf and repurposed silks, Life’s Symphony, or Kyoku (the Japanese title translating to ‘ bend’ or ‘music’), was completed in creative response to the devastating tsunami that struck the north-east coast of Japan in March 2011. Motoko said of this deeply resonant work: “In the vicissitudes of life, we twist and turn, go and return, but always we aspire to move forward.”