Ay-O: A Rainbow FrenzyPost date：2024-04-18
Updates：2024-04-18
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- Event Time
- 2024-04-20~2024-06-09Tue. – Sun. 11:00-19:30
- Event Location
- No. 10, Shaoxing S. St., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City Taiwan, R.O.C
Hiro Hiro Art Space is honored to present a solo exhibition, Ay-O: A Rainbow Frenzy, by the renowned contemporary Japanese artist Ay-O. Ay-O was born Takao Iijima in 1931 in Ibaraki, Japan, and later moved to New York City in the late 1950s, where he became a core member of the international avant-garde art movement Fluxus alongside George Maciunas, Yoko ONO, and Nam June PAIK.
Amidst the vibrant post-war artistic atmosphere in New York, Ay-O began exploring the fusion of senses and art, leading to the creation of his famous tactile experience series "Finger Boxes", one can sense sounds or different textures by putting a finger inside. From the 1960s onwards, Ay-O developed his distinctive art expression characterized by rainbows. Leveraging the vision’s characteristic of rapid information absorption, Ay-O employs the concept of "rainbow" to cover his works with colors spanning the entire visible spectrum. This approach allows viewers to engage more senses through the visual stimulus, leading to an experience of "energy" guided by the rainbow.
His work, "Adam and Eve (Environmental Painting), 1967", debuted at the São Paulo Art Biennial and is on view at Hiro Hiro Art Space. By depicting Adam and Eve, archetypal symbols of human existence, using rainbow colors, Ay-O accentuates both the objective presence of visible colors and the subjective nature of vision. This underscores the individual's responsibility to discern meaning from their personal perception. In addition, this artwork transcends the conventional expression of two-dimensional painting. Not only does it feature sizable three-dimensional rainbow-colored wooden frames, but it also incorporates sculptural fig leaves traditionally used to cover the nudity of Adam and Eve, reflecting the playful and humorous character of Ay-O. In contrast to the historical context surrounding the depiction of Adam and Eve with modest coverings, Ay-O's another on-view work, "Rainbow Hokusai, 1970" also mirrors Japanese cultural norms towards nudity and showcases Ay-O's inventive solutions. Comprised of fifty-four individually printed squares, when scattered, they appear as abstract graphics; yet when assembled, they merged into a rainbow version of traditional Japanese shunga.
Amidst the vibrant post-war artistic atmosphere in New York, Ay-O began exploring the fusion of senses and art, leading to the creation of his famous tactile experience series "Finger Boxes", one can sense sounds or different textures by putting a finger inside. From the 1960s onwards, Ay-O developed his distinctive art expression characterized by rainbows. Leveraging the vision’s characteristic of rapid information absorption, Ay-O employs the concept of "rainbow" to cover his works with colors spanning the entire visible spectrum. This approach allows viewers to engage more senses through the visual stimulus, leading to an experience of "energy" guided by the rainbow.
His work, "Adam and Eve (Environmental Painting), 1967", debuted at the São Paulo Art Biennial and is on view at Hiro Hiro Art Space. By depicting Adam and Eve, archetypal symbols of human existence, using rainbow colors, Ay-O accentuates both the objective presence of visible colors and the subjective nature of vision. This underscores the individual's responsibility to discern meaning from their personal perception. In addition, this artwork transcends the conventional expression of two-dimensional painting. Not only does it feature sizable three-dimensional rainbow-colored wooden frames, but it also incorporates sculptural fig leaves traditionally used to cover the nudity of Adam and Eve, reflecting the playful and humorous character of Ay-O. In contrast to the historical context surrounding the depiction of Adam and Eve with modest coverings, Ay-O's another on-view work, "Rainbow Hokusai, 1970" also mirrors Japanese cultural norms towards nudity and showcases Ay-O's inventive solutions. Comprised of fifty-four individually printed squares, when scattered, they appear as abstract graphics; yet when assembled, they merged into a rainbow version of traditional Japanese shunga.
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