Gallerist's small episodes vol.8 | Misaligned-printing-girls from the Showa era

【TSUGUMI FUJITA　Painter・directer of ROD GALLERY】 

A year has passed since ROD GALLERY opened in Kyobashi. This is one of the few contemporary art galleries in this area. I am a painter and the exhibition planning director for ROD GALLERY.

This area is full of ancient art and antiques, and you can feel the vibrations of the objects here, such as those created during the Jomon period and the Yayoi period, and many historical pieces that you can start by learning about Chinese history. I feel like it emits a special magnetic field.

Compared to such works, it seems like just yesterday, but recently I have been making collage works using paper dolls from the 1940s to 1960s.

When my father was alive, he worked in the business of handling pre-war and post-war toys, and he was also a collector, so I grew up surrounded by such toys. I started making collages using paper dolls that I had at my parents' house, so I started making collages with them.

I use a cutter to cut out the dress-up dolls from the mounts, but there are many mounts with the same image, and if you look closely, each one has a different degree of misalignment, and some overlap and others are greatly misaligned. These are large quantities of printed matter that appear to be one-of-a-kind items, such as those in which the colors themselves are strange, as if they are reversed.

The girls with the same iconography are slightly different from each other, and it looks like they are in a parallel world, looking exactly the same but slightly different. In some cases, the printing of the bride's mouth is misaligned, making it look like she is looking at the bride, and the coincidences that do not exist in today's printed materials give the mass printed matter its individuality.

▲slightly different printing

▲The bride whose printing was misaligned

While using tweezers to place dress-up dolls drawn by illustrators of the time, whose creators are now unknown, I was probably thinking about combining illustrations by different authors and creating a background for the stage to match the iconography. I feel like I'm collaborating with illustrators that transcend time, even though they don't exist in this world.

When it comes to ancient art and antiques, the range of time extends even further, but there is a precious romance in being able to experience cultures and lifestyles that transcend time and are far away.

Whether it's a small old Glico bonus toy that looks like it's going to get lost, a beautiful piece of Art Nouveau ceramics that hasn't broken, or a delicate parchment book of hours, regardless of their historical or monetary value, they all belong to a different era. Like evidence of its existence, it has been left behind and become engraved in culture.

Even on an individual basis, when an artist creates works, it is the same as carving out a small piece of art history.

Art is long and life is short. I am thinking about these things as I look at the dress-up dolls that have been moved from my parents' storage room to their home on paper-covered panels.

【TSUGUMI FUJITA　Painter・directer of ROD GALLERY】 

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ROD GALLERY

11:00 - 19:00
〒104-0031 東京都中央区京橋2-7-12 1F
1F, 2-7-12 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0031
TEL：03-3561-2277
WEB：http://www.rodgallery.jp/
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"Gallerist's small episodes'' features contributions from unique shopkeepers who set up shops in this artistic town. If you have any interest in art, the town, or anything else, please come visit the owner's shop and listen to what he has to say.

translated by Google translation