Hina Maekawa solo exhibition – DOUBLE DWELLER

前川ひな/Hina Maekawa《DOUBLE DWELLER I》 2018, 80.3x100cm, 31 3/5x39 3/8in., oil and pigment on canvas前川ひな/Hina Maekawa《DOUBLE DWELLER IV》 2018, 31.8x41cm, 12 1/2×16 1/7in., oil and pigment on canvas前川ひな/Hina Maekawa《CAVERN III》 2018, 41x31.8cm, 16 1/7x12 1/2in., oil and pigment on canvas

 

Hina Maekawa solo exhibition – DOUBLE DWELLER
JUNE 9(SAT) – 30(SAT), 2018 12:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Closed on Sundays, Monday & Holidays
Opening Reception : JUNE 9(SAT) 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

 

Hina Maekawa (b.1990/Chiba, Japan)
Artist CV

 


 

Hina Maekawa has painted focusing on the art in a society before disenchantment; in a time when people conveyed memory and information by using their body and not depending on external devices. Her work is based on previous research of the Art of Memory (Ars Memoriae) by Frances Yates and the structure analyses of Comparative Folkloristic and Mythology as study on oral traditions which are developed by Alan Dundes or Joseph Campbell.

 

The Method of Loci is one of the famous Art of Memories developed in medieval Western Europe.
The method, known as the Mind Palace today, in which someone draws a real or imaginary house, city or palace inside their head which contains a hundred rooms and quadrates to place symbols and images within it, partly on the floor and partly on the four walls.
Icons from the Bible, Greek myths or Kabbalah etc. often appear as the recommended images (Latin: imagines) in a book for instructing readers in the Art of Memory in those days, and these are also the prototypical elements in her work.

 

Before knowing the Art of Memory, she used to memorize the contents of literature with the images of room layouts as if she knew the method already. The experience fascinated her: The connection between the degree of how easy it is to memorize the contents of literature and use an image of space.
The characterization of these beautifully simple and one-dimensional characters greatly interested her too. These characters exist in myths and folktales for the soul purpose of telling the story.

 

The Art of Memory is the idea that put ‘chains’ (Latin: catena) and ‘marks’ (Latin: notae) on memory as putting tags on a book. According to her, only ‘marks’ float and ‘chains’ vanish or they are generated automatically in the modern society, contrastingly. This is noticeable when we look at Google images. In this example the images are ‘marks’ and they are displayed together without any deep ‘chain’ connection beyond the simple text used in the search.

 

The “DOUBLE DWELLER” Series (treating the Art of Memory and Cosmology in a society before disenchantment as a motif),
The “CAVERN” Series and The “PROGENITOR” Series (using archetype and motifeme in myth/folktale) are going to be exhibited.
Hope you enjoy the show.