The drawings in lacquer and powdered gold borrow from Hokusai or mythological figures (gods of the storm or the wind, phoenix or crane). They also borrow from the illustrations in the Dit du Genji (a story from the 11th century written by Murasaki- shikibu (Lady Murasaki) in a series of kakejiku (a traditional Japanese hanging scroll painting that is unrolled and hung on the wall of the tokonoma in the home or in a room reserved for the traditional tea ceremony). Overall, Kimiko Yoshida’s lacquered images borrow from traditional Japanese aesthetics and the famous In Praise of Shadows by Tanizaki.

You are familiar with Kimiko Yoshida who creates monochromatic self- portraits – without Photoshop – following a consistent conceptual protocol: they have become her signature. The artist sees these self-portraits as timeless and abstract, in other words, free from anecdote. This fixedness of the subject, this indifference, as if the image contained within itself its own absence of limits, responds to a very old process of infinite temporality within a restricted frame that harks back to the Flemish primitives. You are familiar with Kimiko and yet she never ceases to renew her palette and surprise us.

The exhibition catalogue, as well as a very beautiful publication “Femmes photographes” by Pascal Le Thorel (published by Larousse on 11 October 2023) is available for purchase at the gallery.

Sitor Senghor, director