Aya Takano
Aya Takano is a Japanese artist. She is a part of Kaikai kiki Company, which Murakami Takashi established as an art group. There are girls and boys whose body parts are dyed with pink in aya Takano's work. The fantasy that she makes consists of cute animals, young autistic people, semi-realistic scenes and sexuality. The artist embodies Sexuality by naked figures and the sex scene, sometimes bestiality involves in here. It is not a typical manga style like Japanese neo-pop artists such as Murakami Takashi or Mr., Aya Takano depicts her imagination in soft kawaii style. She makes a pleasant visual epiphany by making manga-style fantasy.
Soft civilization
In the exhibition “Jelly Civilisation” at Perrotin, she attempts to create a harmonised connection between the natural world. It is an exhibition that she has imagined for a long time. Adorable androgynous characters in her painting have a curious face, but seem indifferent to the world. I guess this facial expression implies the people in our society may have the dark side of the inner mind as if youth get anxious about the opaque future. It also suggests that human is not that a perfect being so it should get along with nature. The slender, vulnerable shape of character suppose her idea about human soul. Spirit is the essence of human beings, in contrast, the body is just a physical thing. So, the delicate shape of people can exaggerate the idea that spirit is hard to be changed. With regard to this, the reason for the “Jelly” civilisation is from her idea of a body - the jelly-like shapes build a soft civil society.
Eroticism and mysticism
She explained, having sex with an animal is just a surface. Each animal represents a symbolic idea, for example, a lion is a symbol of strongness, a bird may imply freedom. In this context, erotic scenes with animals can be understood by reconnecting power with nature. Human and nature power is mixing in order to make a better world. The present-day is about violence which is from the dark side but there is a good chance to connect the situation to the future.
It is interesting that the heterosexual scene is not intended to be sexy. For me, it looks like a cute version of Shunga (traditional erotic painting in Japan), which she based on. She reflects reflected a contemporary Japanese transliteration of the Lolita complex, called lolicon.
She is a huge fan of science fiction. Her orgasm which is derived from reading sci-fi was much stronger than an actual sexual relationship. That is why her painting has limitless scenarios. As if she has met borderless fictions then felt orgasm, perhaps she wants to share this feeling by art-making. She wishes everyone would feel the special orgasm.
On a Hill, 2019
The Bride and Her Five Husbands, 2019
I know that just a kiss will take me far away, 2006