Endless Forest

I’m thrilled to announce that my solo exhibition is going to start tomorrow @gallery_momo in Tokyo.
Even though Tokyo is still under state emergency, I hope you will be able to stop by it if you will be around.

Naomi Okubo
"From Here to Somewhere, From Somewhere to Here"

September 25  (Sat), - October 23 (Sat), 2021

2F 6-2-6 Roppongi Minato-ku Tokyo 106-0032 Japan
Opening times :Tuesday – Saturday  12pm – 7pm
Closed on Sunday, Monday, National holiday

Artist Comment
In March 2020, NY was in the middle of lockdown.  I could not even go to the studio and I was frightened by the sound of ambulances that did not stop ringing all the time in my apartment.  On the other hand, I was grateful that I could spend my daily life slowly and have enough time, suddenly came down to me, to do nothing. It seemed that it was reversed what I believed ideal and what I longed for, and the important things I missed in the busy days. 
I decided to return to Japan in September 2020. 

The pandemic by COVID-19 has exposed the inherent contradictions of its societies in various countries.
I was thinking about freedom in a country of freedom. Even if you say freedom in one word, the freedom that someone thinks can hinder the freedom of others, and it is different from your own freedom.  

I had considered what an ideal is in an ideal country.
Every country has some kind of ideal.
But that idea maybe someone’s ideal, not me or someone else’s.

From my experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and the nuclear accident, I realized that the important thing and the inconvenient truth the government doesn't want us to know was always hidden in beautiful images and words.  
Can we go out of the given utopia into the wilderness and live freely by having each important belief and holding hands with each other.

Naomi Okubo, 2021

Photo: "Endless Forest"  2021, Acrylic on cotton cloth and panel,　125.0 x 90.0cm