Q: Please introduce yourselves.

(Sawako): I’m Sawako Tanizawa, an artist mostly working on pieces centered around the theme of releasing one’s imagination, and the female image. I also incorporate pieces that question set societal roles for women. I make my works while crossing and intersecting between expressive techniques such as installations, ceramics, paper cutting, and paintings.

(Kaori): I’m Kaori Fujino, a writer. I mainly write short stories and essays for literature magazines. Our unit name of Kirara Aoki is also in a title of a book we wrote, but we’ll have more coming out soon!

Q: Kaori, what would you like visitors to pay attention to?

(Kaori): For this work, I asked Sawako to do something a little different from the usual female image work that we do. I’d like visitors to look at the different faces and by doing so, greatly expand their image of what they think they look like.

Q: Sawako, what brought you to make this work?

(Sawako): This is now my fourth collaboration with Kaori. Until recently, we didn’t have a real unit name, but when I read her book, I felt very inspired by the character, Kirara Aoki, in her book that had all these adventures.

After reading the introduction for her character, where she writes that the character has lived their life as “Kirara”, someone who isn’t particularly special and could’ve been anyone, I knew that we should call ourselves “Aoki Kirara,” and I brought it up to Kaori. This piece is based off the character in her book.

Q: Kaori, is there anything you want to convey through your work?

(Kaori): It’s the same thing I want to convey when I write: please keep living. In this society, there’s a wall in front of most people that they can’t do anything about. Though I don’t have the answer on how to get rid of that wall, I still want all of us to know that we’re not alone, even if we’re all living separate lives.

Q: Sawako, what would you like visitors to pay attention to?

(Sawako): Kirara is a character who could be found anywhere, so I kept that in mind while making masks. I used the masks as stencils and also put stencil prints on them as well. When creating the parts of the masks, I did my best to avoid using any symbolic representations for women. My focus was on making masks where you’d feel the existence of Kirara from one or more of them.

Q: Kaori, how do you feel about your book being adapted into another art form?

(Kaori): I’ve always really liked art, so I’m very happy to be able to be involved with it in this way. Typically,the time it takes to view an art piece is much shorter than the time people use to read books, but even so, it stays in their minds longer. The fact that something I wrote can reach people through art is like a dream come true.

Aoki Kirara
“Don’t worry. We’re alive.”
2024
Acrylic paint on paper, ribbons, vinyl sheets

Art Direction: Sawako Tanizawa
Book: Kaori Fujino
Graphic Design: YUKA IWAKI