Yoko Inoue, a multi-disciplinary artist from Kyoto, Japan, explores the relationship between mass-produced objects and their mutating transcultural value.
Sponsored in part by Fred and Donna Giertz and the Krannert Art Museum Endowment Fund
Inoue creates ceramic hybrid objects that are hand casted from popular items found in urban markets. Amongst many things, these objects portray Coca-Cola bottles, Buddhas, and Hello Kitty figurines that have been morphed with traditional Japanese symbols to inspire new ideas and questions about globalization and its transformative impact.
Inoue presents a largely ceramic installation that transforms the gallery space into a labyrinth of assembled objects, displayed like vending booths derived from traditional Japanese temple fairs. She is interested in the cultural process of assimilation and its effect on the value and form of objects as their symbolism changes into something new. Inoue investigates how cultural symbols acquire new meaning beyond their original context when absorbed and circulated within a new context.
Curator: Tumelo Mosaka
