Women on Fire

Kyoto, January 14, 2025― Sokyo (Furumonzen) is pleased to present the group exhibition ‘Women on Fire’. From internationally recognized figures to those who have been historically undervalued and overlooked, this exhibition will feature women artists such as Aico Tsumori, Annette Messager, Chiharu Shiota, Kimiyo Mishima, Kristen Morgin, Mei Mei, Myriam Mechita, Pae White, Sylvie Auvray, and Toko Shinoda (Alphabetical order), who have independently established themselves through expanding their art practices. Coming from diverse backgrounds and facing various social constraints, these artists have consistently infused their work with energy, offering innovative forms of expression and unique perspectives, while engaging critically with society.

Japanese women artists, in particular, have faced considerable challenges in gaining international recognition. This is largely due to the historical struggles of gender equality in Japanese society, which, in comparison to other developed nations, made it especially difficult for women to succeed on the global stage.

Based in Shigaraki, one of Japan’s six ancient kilns, Aico Tsumori creates ceramics that bring to life familiar animals and people around her. While many of her works are inspired by myths and fairy tales, they diverge from typical happy endings to evoking images of strong, independent girls and women. Beneath their charming, approachable expressions lies an air of mystery—something elusive and almost mystical. In recent years, Tsumori has also created ceramics inspired by drawings her daughter had made, earning her widespread popularity. 

Unyielding to authority, Annette Messager uses her work to explore the yearning for cultural diversity and questions the biased views of women. Since 1970, she has employed everyday materials such as fabric, embroidery, thread, and knitting in her creative practice. In this exhibition, La Lune-crayon (Pencil Moon) (2015), a piece in which countless colored pencils protrude from the fingertips of black fabric gloves, will be on display. While the moon evokes a mystical and poetic imagery, the work simultaneously brings into relief the cruelty and the contradictory complexity of human nature, viewed from an everyday perspective.

Chiharu Shiota addresses the fundamental human issues of life and death, exploring questions such as "What does it mean to live?" and "What is existence?" In her large-scale installations, she weaves threads to evoke a sense of presence within the absence, drawing on the memory that resides in places and objects. Using a variety of techniques, including sculpture, photography, and video, she creates works that engage with these themes. This exhibition features her two-dimensional piece Holding, which seeks to explore human relationships and essence in a society marked by gender inequality, offering an opportunity to reflect on these fundamental questions.

Born in 1932 in Jūsō (Osaka), Kimiyo Mishima spent her childhood not playing with dolls and stuffed animals, but instead through observing spiders, silkworms and lizard through a microscope. Although she dreamed of becoming a doctor, her life took a different path when she told her mother, “People can be made in a flask,” which led to an arranged marriage with a man chosen by her mother. Reluctant to be controlled by others, Mishima started apprenticing under, Shigemi Mishima, who then become her husband, and began experimenting with collage artworks. Many of the materials she used were discarded items by her husband—newspapers, magazines, and horse-racing tickets. In the late 1960s, Mishima shifted from collage to ceramics, using the medium to express her growing concerns about the overwhelming excess of waste and the inundation of information in modern society. After her husband’s death in 1985, she was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, a grant she had once given up on, and spent a year in New York from 1986 to 1987. During this time, she interacted with Pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. However, Mishima’s practice is independent of any group or movement, which reflects her strong commitment to pursuing her own individual artistic expressions. Using image transfers on ceramics created by silk-screen printing, Mishima’s creations are often indistinguishable from actual trash. Wrapped in Mishima's characteristic humor, they nonetheless reflect her sharp, insightful perspective on the world, capturing the essence of the times she observed.

Using raw clay, Kristen Morgin creates objects and icons that evoke personal and collective memories, such as the beloved picture books familiar to American children, as well as figures like Donald Duck, Yoda, and Brad Pitt. By employing materials like paint, ink, graphite, and markers, she crafts surfaces that appear weathered, worn, and distressed, thereby triggering nostalgia in the viewer. In this exhibition, Be A Good Little Pirate (Cassette) (2017), a cassette tape featuring a music mix made by an old partner, along with two pieces from Untitled (Playing Cards) (2006), including a Queen card, and Salt Mary (2001) will be exhibited. 

Using the name ‘Mei Mei’, Marta Corada creates wool sculptures by combining ceramics and felting. Her works explore the duality of light and dark, which she describes as "resembling the penumbra (the partial shadow during a solar or lunar eclipse), and at the same time, existing at the very core of our consciousness." This exhibition is her first group show since her solo debut, KAMI, at Sokyo in 2022. The felting technique she employs is an ancient craft traditionally practiced by women to create clothing and decorative items. Mei Mei applies the intricate needle-felting method and expands the possibilities of this traditional craft into the realm of contemporary art.

Myriam Mechita is a sculptor renowned for her installations and enigmatic forms. Her menagerie of animals—dogs, stags, roe deer, serows, and rabbits—are intentionally abstracted and devoid of realistic details, which in three-dimensional forms, they lose their bodily openings. Without ears, eyes, or mouths, these creatures retain a primitive, unrefined essence. In this exhibition, three ceramic works will be on display: the eyeless birds firebirds (2018), before and after (2018), and potato head(2018).

Pae White is a multimedia artist renowned for creating a diverse range of captivating works by blending elements of art, design, craft, and architecture. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Alexander Calder and West Coast nun Sister Corita, White transforms everyday materials into ephemeral objects and immersive installations. In this exhibition, Companion (2015), a porcelain popcorn adorned with gold glaze will be on exhibit. By inviting viewers to look more closely at familiar encounters and ordinary objects, White breathes new life into the mundane. Her thought-provoking works encourage us to question the deeper meanings behind the shapes and functions of the things we often take for granted.

Sylvie Auvray began her career as a painter and later expanded her artistic practice to include fashion design, sculpture, and ceramics. In her first solo exhibition in Japan, Beast and Broom (2021) at Sokyo (Kyoto), Auvray showcased works centered around brooms—an ongoing motif in her practice—as well as drawings. The exhibited artworks were a combination of brooms with materials such as found tree branches and ceramics parts integrated. The exhibition also drew inspiration from figures like picture story show Pinocchio and Commedia dell’Arte characters, showcasing works that are both intellectually engaging and filled with Auvray’s unique humor. On display in this exhibition will be Blue Apron Broom (2021), a broom piece that incorporates an antique gingham-check apron, which references the time when women were all full-time housewives and took responsible for household chores.

Born in 1913 in old Manchuria (present day China), Toko Shinoda was a calligrapher who lived her entire life as a single woman in an era that held the conservative belief that 'girls cannot be independent.' At the age of five, she began learning calligraphy from her father, and by 23, she had established herself as an independent calligrapher. However, her unconventional approaches were not embraced by the calligraphy world at the time. In 1956, following World War II, she moved to the United States alone, where she witnessed the rise of Abstract Expressionism. Inspired by this movement, she moved from traditional calligraphy towards a newly developed form of 'abstract ink painting' (sumi ink abstraction). Her ink works, expressive of her inner emotions, are characterized by a restrained color palette and bold, fluid lines. These evocative pieces continue to captivate and inspire audiences to this day.