Notable artist Yuree Kensaku is often inspired to create from observing obstacles in life. Her latest exhibition, "The Mansion Of Plates", was inspired by the idea that beauty is a curse.
Yuree was playing a game where she had to overcome obstacles, which appeared as ghost characters, to move to a higher level. She noticed that in the game there were many female ghost characters.
"I was looking for visuals to represent obstacles and was thinking about games because there are many levels to overcome. I noticed that many obstacles in games are female ghosts and I wondered why this was the case," said Yuree.
"After searching online, I believe that the high number of female ghosts reflects a male-dominated society in which women are abused. Therefore, the exhibition 'The Mansion Of Plates' is about equality. I chose stories of beautiful women who encountered tragic events because of their beauty. Being a female is an obstacle; any other gender besides a straight male faces obstacles as well."
The Mansion Of Plates.
"The Mansion Of Plates" was inspired by international folklore and mythology that has female protagonists, especially Japanese folklore as Yuree is a Japanese-Thai artist. The highlight painting, The Mansion Of Plates, depicts the story of Okiku, a beautiful maid in a Japanese folktale. Okiku was killed by her samurai master as she was accused of breaking one plate in a set of 10 porcelains.
"Okiku is a famous Japanese horror story, so there are many versions of it. In one version, the high-ranking samurai master wanted Okiku to be his mistress," explained Yuree.
"The samurai master told her if she agreed to be his mistress, he would not press charges against her. However, Okiku rejected him and she was framed for breaking a porcelain plate which was an important family heirloom of the regional lord. As a result, she was thrown into a well and became a ghost crying and counting one to nine at night."
The Liberation Of The Nine Tailed Fox From The Confinement Of The Killing Stone.
Too Pretty To Be Alive.
While digging information about folklore, Yuree noticed that ghost stories from the past attract tourists to locations.
"The well that Okiku was thrown down is in Himeji Castle. Another horror story is about a killing stone, which trapped the spirit of a famous evil nine-tailed fox named Tamamo no Mae. When the stone was cracked in half two years ago, it became worldwide news. The local government brought priests to pacify the spirit and mend the stone. In photos, I saw a cute fox mascot join the sacred ceremony. It is interesting how frightening stories from the past can be turned into something cute to attract tourists."
The story of the nine tailed fox inspired Yuree to create the painting The Liberation Of The Nine Tailed Fox From The Confinement Of The Killing Stone. In addition to Japanese folklore, Yuree painted Too Naïve To Choose from the Thai folktale Chanthakhorop, which has a female protagonist named Nang Mora. The painting was created with several symbols, is influenced by Japanese art and animation, and features bright and vibrant colours.
Nang Mora was accused of being an unfaithful woman because she gave a knife to a bandit when he was fighting with her husband Chanthakhorop. She later agreed to be a wife of god Indra when she was starving and lost in a jungle. However, Indra was furious and accused her of being easy so he cursed her to be a gibbon.
A photograph created using the glass plate negative technique.
A set of nine porcelain plates.
Yuree disagrees with Indra's punishment. She believes that Nang Mora did not know much about the world and that she had a right to choose who she wanted to be with.
Besides Thai folktales, "The Mansion Of Plates" includes paintings that reflect Western folklore too. Too Pretty To Be Alive depicts a feline cat in a black outfit wearing a witch hat, holding a vintage iron and standing in a fire. The painting was inspired from the witch hunt era in Europe.
"Many women were accused of being witches because they were beautiful. Many married men claimed that these women were witches who used black magic and beauty to seduce them. Paintings from the witch hunt era depict women who were accused, bound and burned or drowned. An iron or tao reed in Too Pretty To Be Alive is a wordplay to refer to nok reed meaning unorthodox," explained Yuree.
Another highlight is A Demoness Disguised As 'Lisa' During The Crazy Horse Burlesque. The idea was derived from controversy surrounding Blackpink's Lisa when she agreed to perform at Crazy Horse, a Parisian cabaret featuring sensual choreography and glamorous presentation.
Too Naïve To Choose.
The LGBTQ+ Sailors In The World Of Two Suns.
Yuree explained that the image of Lisa represents beautiful women in the current generation. In the painting, Lisa stands on an illuminated stage, proud and confident of her own beauty. She appears holding a fox mask and has fox ears and a tail.
Since not only women suffer in a male-dominated society, two paintings -- Sailor Usagi From The Rainbow Universe and The LGBTQ+ Sailors In The World Of Two Suns -- are dedicated to the LGBTI community.
These paintings were inspired by popular Japanese animation Sailor Moon. Yuree explained that Sailor Moon is a revolutionary female animation since in the past, superhero characters were mostly men but Sailor Moon features a lesbian couple (Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune). However, this caused Sailor Moon to be censored in some countries such as the US, Russia, Hungary and Italy.
The LGBTQ+ Sailors In The World Of Two Suns celebrates Thailand's same sex marriage law by depicting animals that have same sex relationships such as dolphins, monkeys, ducks, birds and giraffes.
In addition to paintings, Yuree designed a set of nine precious porcelain plates inspired by the tragic story of the Japanese maiden Okiku. The plates feature the kintsugi technique which shows off cracked lines by highlighting them with gold lacquer. Yuree aimed to use the kintsugi technique to show damage which can be interpreted as human wounds, both physical and emotional.
Yuree often introduces herself as a multidisciplinary artist since she aims to work with several kinds of medium. "The Mansion Of Plates" features 38 art pieces which are paintings, sculptures, photographs and ceramics. The paintings were created with several techniques such as spray paint, acrylic paint, glitters, collages, permanent pen, solid marker and golden leaves on linen.
There are five photographs of female protagonists (Mae Nak, the nine tailed fox, Medusa, a black cat witch and Okiku) created using the glass plate negative technique and put in an exquisite teak box.
"In the past, people who had photographs taken with glass plate negatives were upper class and/or wealthy people. This exhibition values people who were abused and oppressed by creating their photographs using glass plate negatives," said Yuree.
When asked what she expects from "The Mansion Of Plates", Yuree responded that she did not expect anything from viewers.
"I don't have expectations. I only have expectations for myself. I put in all my effort and did my best for the exhibition by working every day for a year. This is probably my biggest show, so I just want to see the results of my efforts."
"The Mansion Of Plates" runs until March 16 at JWD Art Space, Chula Soi 16. Admission is free. For more information, visit facebook.com/jwdartspaceexhibition.
