Kaoru Akagawa

Kaoru Akagawa
赤川 薫
Kaoru Akagawa, 2024
Born1973 (age 51–52)
Montreal, Canada
Occupation(s)Artist, Railway journalist, Photographer
Years active2010-
Known forArtist, Railway journalist, Photographer
Websitewww.meisterin-akagawa.jp

Kaoru Akagawa (赤川 薫, Kaoru Akagawa, born 1973) is a Japanese contemporary artist, railway journalist and photographer. Akagawa's unique style of art, where thousands of intricately interwoven kana meld to form larger images, is based on her technique as a master of Japanese calligrapher.[1][2]

Akagawa’s new style of art has been picked up by notable media, including CNN, The Guardian, Deutsche Welle and BBC Radio[3] and featured by The Avant/Garde Diaries[4], a video magazine initiated by Mercedes-Benz, as being extraordinary.[5]

Akagawa has held exhibitions in cities such as Berlin, Paris, London and Tokyo. She has held lectures at venues like the University of Oxford, the University of London School of Advanced Study and the University of Zurich.[3]

Akagawa is also active as a railway journalist and photographer and writes for British and Japanese railway magazines.[6]

Biography

Akagawa was born in Montreal, Canada, and spent her childhood in New York. At fifteen, she moved with her family to Japan.[7][8] She received a Bachelor of Arts in Human Relations from Keio University in 1995.[7]

Afterwards, Akagawa worked as a 3D computer graphic designer for TV commercials[9] but gradually became aware of her inner conflict of working for the capitalist advertising industry. Rejecting machine-produced products, Akagawa altered her medium to traditional Japanese ink and brush.[10]

Since 2007, Akagawa is based in Europe.[7] Her globe-trotting and the discrimination she experienced growing up in the U.S. led to “Crossing Borders” becoming one of the core ideas of her work.[3]

In 2008, she received the Master (Shihan) title in Japanese kana calligraphy. Although Akagawa believes that tradition must be preserved and passed on to the next generation, she also felt uncomfortable just expressing herself within the constraints of tradition and held a strong urge to go beyond traditional borders with her own style of art, Kana Art. [10]

Then she thought of a painting she remembered seeing at the MET Museum in New York when she was nine years old. It was by an artist named Seurat, who painted using small colored dots —a style which is called pointillism— and she remembered this painting and thought, "If he can paint with dots, then maybe I can paint with my Kana characters".[8]

In 2010, Akagawa began creating her original artworks using kana characters.[1][2] Through her new style of art, people without Japanese knowledge are also able to appreciate fluent lines of kana characters by gazing images created by the contrast of kana characters.[11]

With these subtle works, which can take months to produce, Akagawa revitalizes a heritage while demonstrating how influential this system of writing still is in the modern world. Kaoru Akagawa presents her works on kana art in a wide range of two-dimensional and three-dimensional pieces. In both types of works, kana characters are not only writing but also aesthetic forms. In these works, Akagawa transcends the traditional form of kana, transforming the characters into visual art objects.[12]

In 2022 she completed her Master of Arts in History of Art and Archaeology in University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. In the same year, she began working as a railway journalist and photographer, providing photographs and writing for Japanese and British railway magazines and railway calendars.[13]

Selected Solo Exhibitions

  • Liechtenstein National Museum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein[14]
  • Gallery BOA-PARIS, Paris, France[15]
  • Ryosokuin, a sub-temple of Kenninji, the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto, Japan[9]

References

  1. ^ a b Jozuka, Emiko (15 March 2020). "The woman reviving a forgotten female-only script". CNN. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  2. ^ a b Dearnley, Elizabeth (26 June 2019). "Saving 'woman hand': the artist rescuing female-only writing". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  3. ^ a b c "Kaoru Akagawa". Across Border. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  4. ^ Can, Hakan. "Kaoru Akagawa - Ancient Words". The Avant/Garde Diaries. Retrieved 17 January 2025.
  5. ^ "The Avant/Garde Diaries". The Avant/Garde Diaries. Retrieved 17 January 2025.
  6. ^ "カテゴリー「赤川薫（アーティスト・鉄道ジャーナリスト）」の記事一覧ページ". trafficnews.jp (in Japanese). 31 December 2024. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  7. ^ a b c "Kaoru Akagawa's biography". TORCH The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities Division. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  8. ^ a b "The Beauty of Inefficiency". The Autumn Salon. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  9. ^ a b Matsuura, Yoshitake (6 January 2013). "仮名文字の濃淡　風神雷神を表現". Kyoto Shimbun Newspaper (in Japanese).
  10. ^ a b "Calligraphy with a female voice: meet the guardian of an ancient Japanese script shaped by women". Talking Humanities. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  11. ^ "Die Kunst der Kalligrafie" - Rheinishe Post. (11 May 2012 | language=de)
  12. ^ Ezgi Özdemir "Kaoru Akagawa Die Handschrift der Frau in der Kalligrafie" - Stayinart. (02 December 2024 |language=de)
  13. ^ Akagawa, Kaoru (22 August 2022). "【新連載】鉄子の始まり。鉄道に癒されて". absolute-london.co.uk (in Japanese). Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  14. ^ "Grenzen überschreiten – Kana-Kunst von Kaoru Akagawa". Liechtensteinisches LandesMuseum (in German). Retrieved 17 January 2025.
  15. ^ "GALERIE BOA Art Contemporain". GALERIE BOA Art Contemporain (in French). Retrieved 17 January 2025.