Critics
And, We Stand at the Threshold of the World
The characters that Maiko Kobayashi repeatedly depicts are not referenced from anime or manga, but are the result of an infinitely pure and natural manifestation of her conscious. Like the doodles we made in the corners of our notebooks as children, they are primitive expressions that resonate with us and with which we can empathize. Rather than prompting us to establish an emotional connection with the motif, her works evoke a sense of relating to an external existence, that is, an awareness of “feeling” the presence of the motif. Kobayashi mentions that the external appearance of her motifs, which resemble anthropomorphic animals, are influenced by the stuffed animals and fancy goods that she has been familiar with since childhood. Characters in commercial animation and manga play an assigned role within a certain framework, and through the combination of symbols that arouse people’s desires and the stories behind them, attract a great deal of sympathy and support, and at the same time are consumed in a wide variety of forms. Kobayashi returns to the very essence, or what one might call the “anima” of these characters beyond their mere presence as consumer goods, thereby creating images that make use of their ephemeral qualities that cannot be materialized (or given life to) without a medium or something to anchor them to. Characters in fancy goods are originally composed of simplified symbols with only fragmentary information provided such as their name, family structure, favorite food, etc., leaving room for consumers to project their imaginations and emotions. However, this margin seems to be even broader in the case of the characters that Kobayashi depicts. They are beings that are always in sync with reality, resonating in response to our various sensibilities and sensations. In recent years, Kobayashi’s methods of expression have expanded from drawings and paintings on various supports to three-dimensional pieces, but the characters that seemingly belong to the same species convey complex nuances in each work, and the viewer’s emotional involvement appears to increase in depth as a succession of small narratives unfold.
In producing her work, Kobayashi first attempts to reconsider the role of the support. She frottages roads and building walls around the world onto Japanese paper which are then torn up and reassembled, embroidered in parts to create seams, and pasted onto wooden panels and canvases to add an intricate artistic effect. By incorporating the movements of her hands = the artist’s emotions, the support itself comes to manifest as a place that harbors a sense of power. In other words, the support plays the role of a physical layer that enables the images depicted upon it to function as a data link layer. Even when using a single sheet of paper as a support, she explores the optimal solution for her own means of expression by maximizing the characteristics of the material. Furthermore, in the images depicted on such supports, the artist attempts to seamlessly connect the character (figure) and the background (ground) to create a strong and cohesive “mental image.” What is more, by incorporating the support as an element of expression, the work comes to be established as a physical being that is connected to reality. In Kobayashi’s works, the support plays the role of a mirror that reflects herself. She confronts the support, and through the movements of her hands, captures the emotions and words that lie hidden within herself, and by continuing to move her hands until she arrives their essence, she comes to give shape to abstract thoughts as definite “beings.” This movement of shifting back-and-forth between depiction and contemplation not only clarifies the underlying themes within her conscious, but also serves as an important process for objectifying the subjective. The relationship between the subject and the other can be translated into questions surrounding the work, such as object and image, reality and illusion, front and back, outside and inside. However, in Kobayashi’s work, rather than organizing these concepts as pairs, she consciously perceives them as structures of entanglement, and places emphasis on expressing the complex world of reality that cannot be simplified in all its chaos. When Kobayashi’s inner emotions and thoughts, extracted through her latent psychological metacognition, are eventually combined into an image, the subject and the other become intertwined and emerge before us as a single being. The traces of the back-and-forth movement of hands and thoughts become “layers” of lines and colors, creating a strong and rich artistic effect, which could indeed be regarded as “beauty” supported by the layers of consciousness of people living in contemporary society. In this way, Kobayashi produces numerous “portraits of the present age,” which are at once “portraits of Kobayashi” and also “portraits of us.”
The characters in her works that strongly attract the eye give the impression of being quietly close to the viewer, as if looking away but also occasionally turning an inquisitory glance. When we receive the gaze staring back at us from these characters, who somehow harbor a sense of fragility and apprehensiveness in contrast to their formative strength, we gain the feeling as if the characters have come to life, and a heart-to-heart communion occurs between character and viewer. Kobayashi affixes the emotions of a single human being, that is herself, onto the work of art and makes it something that is relatable to others, also using the works as a medium to erase the distance between herself and the viewers. Created in this manner, her works also avoid the imposition of one-sided claims by the artist as an “authority.”
Kobayashi writes down the thoughts and feelings she has in her daily life and practice, as well as words that come to mind, and keeps these on display in her studio for a while. One of these notes reads, “Facing your real life moments even (if) it’s a hard time. This would give you hints and perspectives to live strongly.” Although Kobayashi herself becomes pessimistic whenever she is confronted with social problems that the world faces, she is also attracted to the strength of human beings who strive to survive in chaotic times. Kobayashi states, “The energy generated from the friction of contradictory sensations is the source of my paintings.” As exemplified by these words, her works hint at various aspects of the harsh reality and the relationship between the people who live there. However, the characters that Kobayashi depicts are merely inducements that serve to increase the affinity between the work and the viewer. They are never objects of consumption, but rather a “you” who is on par with “I”—as one who is always willing to acknowledge and accept our thoughts and feelings. When producing works, Kobayashi focuses on “emotions” and “consciousness,” both of which are difficult to verbalize, and it is for this reason that the impressions of the images established are never stable; always fluctuating, with each viewer generating their own value. Perhaps Kobayashi is pursuing a mode of expression in which the work itself is like a living creature, and the work itself exists for what it is. It is through their “endearment” and “sadness,” “fragility” and “strength,” “melancholy” and “sorrow,” that we as viewers find ourselves standing at the “threshold of the world.”
Takeshi Kudo (Curator, Director of Tagawa City Museum of Art), 2024
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Maiko Kobayashi – Creatures with Psychological Heads
Humans have faces, or more precisely complex and profound surfaces known as faces. These surfaces are in the foreground on behalf of language and text, or rather appear beyond the latter’s absence and concealment, oppression and constraints as if pushed from its bare and honest state. The face with no voice and words inevitably reveals and discloses everything that is going on in the body. The eyes, in particular, are the only and most powerful organ through which those from within flow out. While other sensory organs on the face serve as a sort of symbol or image to show emotions through facial expressions and wrinkles, human eyes powerfully draw the attention of others and reflect the state of emotion like a landscape. Furthermore, the eyes, as it endlessly moves, continuously reveal the ambiguity of the lively, active body and emotions. Those are eyes to see and eyes to be seen. My eyes are mine, but so are the eyes of others.
Maiko Kobayashi draws only the heads of animals that resemble human faces. Technically they are not animals, but her drawings are reminiscent of them. The artist’s intention was not to recreate the animals but instead create similar heads derived from them but simplified, iconized and characterized. Kobayashi’s heads appear to be a complex mixture of humans, dolls and animal faces/ heads. They don’t look like human faces, but the heads carry intricate, personal and delicate emotions just like humans. Animals are thought to have facial expressions as well, and remarkably they may experience a wide range of emotions on par with humans. However, we are unable to accurately read their emotions. Humans express themselves not only through facial expressions but also through language, text and behavior; however, except in extremely rare cases, it is difficult to fully understand how animals feel due to the absence of memory. Kobayashi’s heads, on the other hand, depict genuine and truthful emotions. They are similar to but not identical to human faces, resemble but not identical to animal heads but more than anything are psychological heads.
Some personified figures are painted with human-like arms for their legs/forelegs or with the upper half of the body, but mostly only the head dominates the canvas space. Legs/arms are rendered relatively small and the body too is reduced in comparison to the head, indicating that the main subject matter is the human and animal hybrid head. The head is dominated by two large eyes while the rest of the body parts appear to be very small.
The artist primarily used acrylic and oil pastel on canvas for her paintings and colored pencils and oil pastel on objects such as paper and envelopes for her drawings. The majority of Kobayashi’s canvas paintings illustrate heads with or without upper bodies on a monochromatic background whereas her drawings depict not only the head but also the entire body with some English phrases, reminiscent of speech bubbles in comics. The text floats in the margins of the space like the voice of a human-like animal character and it would describe his or her own emotions.
Multiple layers of gesso form a solid and dense monochromatic background behind each head. Although the backdrop and margins may appear to be plain and simple abstract, within it is the time consumed and various processes, layers of paint as well as built-up materials which contribute to the creation of a solid thickness and depth ingrained in the space within them. The single-toned background is occasionally divided into two color planes or depicts a multiple-layered, fluid visual space formed by many rotating lines. The same technique is used on the characters’ heads. As a result, Kobayashi’s work appears simple but has a solid pictorial quality.
Each canvas features a single head. These adorable heads look like a blend of the head of a dog, rabbit or cat and the face of a human and they appear familiar yet strange, adorable yet sorrowful. It is difficult to tell what expressions they are making. It connotes some melancholy, some lightheartedness, cautious and secretive feelings. It is noticeably ironic how a human-like character illustrates the most personal facial expressions of a man from a piece of art. Like a human proxy, each character represents the nuances of all kinds of emotions that one person has. At this point, both the artist and the audience are compelled to emotionally engage, involve and participate. Kobayashi embodies various emotional situations arising from external relationships with others through the character that represents the artist’s identity. The audience can also put themselves in the characters’ psychological situations and empathize or imagine the inevitable emotional ups and downs that life throws at lonely people. And they picture that trajectory.
Maiko Kobayashi’s strange creatures capture a fleeting moment of truly personal and trivial emotions and present them covertly and carefully. The feelings shine through the big face and big eyes rather bitterly. Her work simply and inadvertently resonates patches of delicate feelings that cannot be clearly explained and reminds the viewers that the conflicts and scars from contradictory emotions as well as internal struggles between helplessness and will of life are theirs to endure and cherish.
Park Young-Taik (Professor at Kyonggi University, Art Critic), 2022
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NOUVELLE GARDE DE L’ART CONTEMPORAIN JAPONAIS
Man is nothing more than what he makes of himself…
This quote form Sartre could just as well illustrate Maiko Kobayashi’s work, which deals with existential issues differently than simply offering an escape to some fantasy world.
...For Maiko Kobayashi, action starts with the understanding of other’s feelings, it means being able to relate one’s emotions to those of others.
This is why Maiko Kobayashi features a series of recurring characters depicted as either isolated or in a group in her paintings. We need to look beyond its cute, Kawaii aspect to understand its purpose. The character is a hybrid, half human, half animal. Rabbit, dog or cat, animals intermingle to highlight its humanity, most noticeable in its looks and postures.
What are these creatures? These beings fill her creative space and are the vessels to every human emotion. When we look at her artwork, we are overwhelmed with emotions and each piece becomes an object of fascination. It seems more about sadness and suffering than about joy. The media has been manhandled: the paintings’ edges are ruined, and the drawing paper is torn up then fixed with bandaid like paper – as if to cover a wound. The act of creation is now an act of sympathy.
Her painting technique is rather specific: Maiko Kobayashi first paints a monochrome background over a layer of gesso then she draws her characters. Afterwards, she paints another background erasing the characters so she has to draw them again. She proceeds to repeat this same action as many times as needed for her creatures to seem to appear from the depths of the canvas, as if they were born from the wood itself.
The existential issue is raised once again: “Does existence precede essence?” The viewer’s empathetic gaze upon the creature allows it to reach a new degree of existence it didn’t have otherwise.
The content, at first seemingly trivial, now displays profound philosophical implications, and we’re surprised to find ourselves staring at the artwork, trying to contain our emotions – or not. Once you’ve encountered work by Maiko Kobayashi, it’s not easily forgotten.
Maiko Kobayashi undertook extensive research to achieve the final design of her creatures, including a series of sketches on newsprint during her journey to the United Kingdom. These small bits of paper are on display, pinned to her wall; their shapes vary according to the artist’s whimsy. These sketches are just as many small portrayals, questioning our existence and our ability to get to know others as well as ourselves.
Sophie Cavaliero, 2011