Yoshimoto Nara

^{“There are two things about Yoshitomo Nara that anybody who knows anything}

^{at all about him knows. He specializes in images of children with big heads and}

^{large eyes that gaze back at us, penetratingly yet opaquely. And he's obsessed}

^{with music: popular music, alternative music, protest music. His work teems}

^{with band names, titles of songs and albums, and snatches of lyrics. His earliest}

^{source of artistic inspiration came from listening to records and immersing}

^{himself in the atmosphere around the music created by record sleeve art.}

^{Staring into the eyes of Nara's subjects, I like to think that the looks they give us}

^{could be the look of music itself. If a song could see or sound had sight, it might}

^{peer at us with such expressions of defiance or reproach or undefinable yearning.}

^{Nara has described his profound formative encounters with music as occurring}

^{in a prelinguistic or paralinguistic space. Heard on the radio and acquired mostly}

^{as import records, these were almost all examples of Western rock of the 1960s.}

^{As a pre-teen, Nara didn't understand English at all, and the imported versions he}

^{bought (because they were cheaper than the Japanese editions) didn't come}

^{with translated lyric sheets. He couldn't even decipher the titles of the songs.}

^{So it was entirely through the emotional tone of the melodies and vocals that}

^{Nara bonded with the music. He turned into--and intuited- the mood and}

^{tenor without knowing the actual content of a lyric or the context in which the}

^{artist operated.”}
_{Personally, Yashimotos work strikes a sense of nostalgia with me. It reminds of the Japanese artwork which originally inspired me to start art. He uses soft colour palettes and large eyed imagery which is an unfamiliar style to me. It expresses children in a range of emotional complexities from resistance and rebellion to quietude and contemplation—celebrates the introspective freedom of the imagination and the individual.}
_{Art after suffering:Yoshimoto’s piece Pinacotea (2021) features a girl commonly seen through out is work since 2012. After the Fukushima tsunami and earthquake Yoshimoto felt a sense of helplessness. Some may say his response to this feeling of loss and dispare was found in the painting MISS SPRING (2012), this piece was an important mark in his return to painting- his work became contextually deeper and contained a ‘stronger’ meaning to it. I believe that this painting was fundamental to how we view his work today. When I visited his sculpture PEACE HEAD 2021, I felt a sense of unease and disorder. I found it interesting to find such a large white head which stated “PEACE” on it in such a loud and bustling space such as Hanover Square. Many people brush past it: commuters getting to work and tradesmen smoking up and having lunch around it- non appreciative of the work or the message behind it. But, I can not help myself from thinking this is purposeful… Yoshitomo thinks carefully about the area and placement of his work often using scarcity of space to represent the feelings behind it. Because of this I believe that Nara placed such a strong speaking sculpture in this park on purpose, I believe it is a representation on how in such a busy and crowded work people often ignore messages of peace and community to focus on them selves.}

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