The Shameful Chrysanthemum
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Sayo Senoo is a contemporary Japanese artist born in 1977, now living and working in Paris. After studying phenomenology at University of Tokyo (Japan), she studied contemporary art at Musashino Art University (Japan) and Université Paris 8 (France).
Her works have been exhibited in various galleries and cultural centres, including La Maison de la Culture du Japon (Paris in 2008), la Galerie Bansard (Paris in 2010), and Lagalerie, (Paris in 2011).
In November 2019, she received the Paul-Louis Weiller Award for sculpture from the prestigious Academy of Fine Art in Paris.
She started her publishing activity in 2019, both to document her ephemeral works, and as a creative medium in itself. All the books and objects are delicately hand-made by the artist, and in limited edition. Some are available at Librairie Mazarine (Paris), Librairie Yvon Lambert (Paris) and 本\hon\books (Paris).
Her publication " Lands that shed tears" (2019) is represented on the shortlist for the National Gallery of Victoria’s International Cornish Family Prize for Art and Design Publishing 2020 (Melbourne, Australia).
7th - 31th July
In the history of mankind, peace always seems tenuous and ephemeral. We live in a world that constantly transitions from one war to the next, regardless of scale or scope. There are always people, mostly those in positions of power, who seek meaning and purpose in wars—or worse, grow rich and powerful from them. Meanwhile, patriotic young individuals, engaged and incentivised by propaganda, become soldiers and warriors willing to fight to the end for the promise of honour. But does honour exist in any kind of war?
When Japanese artist Sayo Senoo visited Norway for the first time as a 10-year-old child, she did not yet know how to answer the questions she received about the Second World War and Japan’s role in Asia. She only remembered the sadness and remorse she had been taught to carry, as most people in Japan had. Now, as an artist, she is deeply engaged in working with inspiration and materials drawn from historical events related to radioactivity—the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and others. Through her art, she has finally found an intuitive yet fragmented way to respond to these questions.
In this exhibition, Sayo juxtaposes images of the Japanese Legion of Honour (modelled after Napoleon’s French Legion of Honour) with "the body’s most embarrassing organ," whose name terminologically associates with the flower from which the order of the Japanese Legion of Honour takes its form.
