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„Kappa in Kainisch“

Posted by Haruko Maeda

„Kappa in Kainisch“ 170 x 140 cm, oil on canvas, 2024

Fotos copyright: Joshua Hoven

Copyright: Joshua Hoven

 

Copyright: Joshua Hoven

Copyright: Joshua Hoven

A kappa (河童, „river-child“)—also known as kawatarō (川太郎, „river-boy“), komahiki(駒引, „horse-puller“), with a boss called kawatora (川虎, „river-tiger“) or suiko (水虎, „water-tiger“)—is a reptiloid kami with similarities to yōkai found in traditional Japanese folklore. Kappa can become harmful when they are not respected as gods. They are typically depicted as green, human-like beings with webbed hands and feet and turtle-like carapaces on their backs. A depression on its head, called its „dish“ (sara), retains water, and if this is damaged or its liquid is lost (either through spilling or drying up), the kappa is severely weakened.

The kappa are known to favor cucumbers and love to engage in sumo wrestling.They are often accused of assaulting humans in water and removing a mythical organ called the shirikodama from their victim’s anus.

Solo exhibition „Über die Schwelle“

Posted by Haruko Maeda

Solo Exhibition „Über die Schwelle“ – in Catholic Church Hallstatt | 18.02.-28.03.2024

 

 

ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. ARTISTIC POSITIONS ON DEATH AND TRANSIENCE

Description

Death and transience from various cultural perspectives are at the heart of Haruko Maeda’s works. They open the exhibition series Across the Threshold, in which artistic works on death and transience will be on display in Hallstatt until the fall. The parish church, ossuary and crypt will be the places where the works of the Linz-based Japanese artist can be found.

Traditional Japanese ways of dealing with loss and mourning meet a special form of classical European visual language, which exert a great fascination on the artist. Bones, ceramics, corals and textiles are transformed into artistic objects, as are taxidermied animal carcasses. They allude in a multi-layered way to the rituals and connotations handed down over the centuries in the Catholic Church, such as the veneration of relics. Haruko Maeda contrasts this with a very personal view of mourning against the background of her own cultural background. The death of her grandmother, the feelings and emotions triggered by it, but also the very personal way in which she deals with the loss of people close to her, become visible in paintings as well as the objects mentioned. The appeal of the pictures and objects lies in the dissonance of beauty and pain, the juxtaposition of the very different traditional ideas of dealing with death in European and Japanese mourning cultures. What ultimately connects the two is the question of how the pain of loss can be given a form and the possibility of a new beginning. Haruko Maeda’s works do this in an impressively captivating way.

Over the Threshold is a reference project of the Catholic Church of Upper Austria / Parish of Hallstatt and the Department of Art and Culture of the Diocese of Linz / for the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024.

The second part will open on Sunday, 2.6.2024.With works by Aldo Giannotti, Markus Hofer, Jochen Höller, Klara Kohler, Rosmarie Lukasser, Roman Pfeffer, Franz Riedl, Six/Petritsch, Wendelin Pressl and Betty Wimmer

Contact:Josef Zauner, j.zauner@schule.at, 06134 8246

https://www.salzkammergut-2024.at/en/veranstaltungen/haruko-maeda-2/

https://deeds.news/2024/02/haruko-maeda-ueber-die-schwelle-pfarrkirche-hallstatt-18-02-28-03-2024/

https://kurier.at/chronik/oberoesterreich/ausstellung-im-beinhaus-leben-und-tod-sind-ganz-nahe/402789616

https://www.artatberlin.com/news-haruko-maeda-ueber-die-schwelle-pfarrkirche-hallstatt-18-02-28-03-2024/

https://www.krone.at/3310596

 

 

Exhibition “ As we know it“ Haruko Maeda & Michael Heindl

Posted by Haruko Maeda

26 May – 1 July 2023 at Elektrohalle Rhomberg in Salzburg

In their joint exhibition at Elektrohalle Rhomberg, Haruko Maeda (*1983) and Michael Heindl (*1988) reveal the fragility of the normality and the mundane. Through painting and film, they independently declare the always only supposedly existing normality to be the central aspect of a contemporary, human crisis. In the combination and juxtaposition of their works, a general problem is made tangible: the concept of the normal proves to be extremely imprecise and is always subject to the consistent change of realities of life.

Niklas Koschel

 

„Amabie“

Posted by Haruko Maeda

„Amabie“ 130 x 95cm, oil on canvas, 2022

Amabie (アマビエ) is a legendary Japanese mermaid or merman with a bird-beak like mouth and three legs or tail-fins, who allegedly emerges from the sea, prophesies either an abundant harvest or an epidemic, and instructed people to make copies of its likeness to defend against illness.

During the Covid-19 pandemic in Japan, amabie became a popular topic on SNS in Japan.

 

 

  Original drawing of „Amabile“, Anonym 1846