Interview with Tomoko Shioyasu – Bye Bye Kitty!!!

Japan Society had the chance to sit down and talk with Tomoko Shioyasu, one of the 16 artists in the upcoming gallery exhibition "Bye Bye Kitty!!!" Tomoko Shioyasu’s work is based on the traditional art of paper cutting, which she transforms into minimal sculptural forms. The delicate white membranes she produces are concerned with reference rather than illusion, space rather than image, and with modulating flows of energy. She began creating site-specific works with the large installation acorn (2004), making interventions into the physical spaces of the gallery without providing an obvious framework, thus allowing the piece to be viewed from both sides. Whether concentrating on cells, veins, trees, rocks, or cosmic flows of energy, Shioyasu has continued to develop a vocabulary of organic structure that refers back to primordial forms of nature. Asked about what she regarded as content in her work, Shioyasu replied, "Simply nature itself, particularly that which has existed over an extended period of time—rocks, trees, water channels, cells. I want to look into the essence and roots of life, making works that focus on these basic forms." Vortex has been created especially for Bye Bye Kitty!!!