CLOSE TO YOU

ANJU SHIMOIE • WADA CHIZU
2022.5.20 - 6.11

I move from the ends of man, that is the confines of man,
to the crossing of borders between man and animal.
Passing across borders or the ends of man I come or surrender to the animal,
to the animal in itself, to the animal in me and the animal at unease with itself,
to the man about whom Nietzsche said something to the effect
that it was an as yet undetermined animal, an animal lacking in itself.

From The Animal that therefore I am (Jacques Derrida, 2002)

Anju Shimoie's paintings are reminiscent of the old retro manga that was popular in Japan before she was born. Unlike contemporary digital art, which is precise and sharp, it uses rounded lines to draw objects softly. In addition, sepia tone colors are used rather than vivid colors to create a warm atmosphere that stimulates nostalgia. She draws the world she imagines and various species of living things on canvas. It is a place where utopias and dystopias, humor and irony all exist, just like the world in which humans live. In particular, animals symbolize the diversity of individuals. Each of them is lovely and placed in a relationship with each other. After the pandemic, the artist is more immersed in the relationship with plants and animals, humans, and the environment.


From an early age, the artist was influenced by subcultures, manga and cartoon. At first, she started drawing manga, but gradually she wanted to draw a moving scene that excluded the story, and she started to mix various scenes and complete it into one canvas. In particular, the artist emphasizes the expression of the outline and the line created between the silhouette of a figure and the face. By finely adjusting the color of the line for each layer, it expresses physical depth and gives life to the object.

Wada Chizu liked to draw from an early age, but learned to draw by self-taught against her parents' opposition. She started serializing her paintings on the Internet in 2009, and made her debut as a cartoon artist in 2014. Since then, she has been actively working in various art scenes such as publications, exhibitions, and art fairs, expanding the scope of her creation through painting.

Artist’s works contain stories about humans, animals, and relationships. The artist said about animals, “I love animals. But I’m also in awe of them. I want to live with them, but I can't keep them for fear that I might not be able to make them happy.” The ambivalence that the artist feels toward animals reminds us of the relationship between me and the other in philosophy. As an inner extension, the other is the same as itself, and a different being that maintains absolute otherness because it can never be assimilated. Through her paintings, the artist wants to depict the ideal point of her dreams, the moment of complete love and sharing as beings who are perfectly equal to each other.


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