Kota Hirakawa

Japan

Born in Kochi, Japan, 1987. Lives in Saitama. After graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts (MFA) in 2013, works mainly as a conceptual painter referencing contemporary society in his works. A running theme in his work is ‘The Keisho of Memory’ (“keisho” can mean “inheritance”, “form” and “alarm”) exploring memory and memory lapse.

Main exhibitions include “Why not live for Art? II” Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (2013), “The Vision of Contemporary Art”,The Ueno Royal Museum (2014), “Catastrophe and the Power of Art” Mori Art Museum (2018), “ARTIST FOCUS #02 HIRAKAWA KOTA- Cemetery/ Inori no Keisho” The Museum of Art,Kochi (2022) ,“The strongest person on the earth is the one stands most alone” Tsunagi Art Museum(2022) and more, Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi Mitsuichi Estate Award (2013).

Work

Featured Work

Kota Hirakawa

Where Do We Come From? Where Are We Going?
2022

Beautiful islands in the far south of Japan. I will not forget the memory of the war in which those islands were involved, so that history will not repeat itself. Even though we think of it as a distant memory of distant islands, it is soon to become a problem close to our hearts. It is not a fire on the opposite shore, but a problem for us, the human race. I think the power of art is the power to imagine the unseen beyond.

At first glance, the work is vivid and beautiful, but it depicts many of the problems facing the world today. The crouching wolf man represents the history of persecution. The impact of man’s elimination of the wolf on nature can be seen in many books.

On the other hand, the fox man holding a message card represents the diversity of values by culture.

In Japan, foxes are worshipped as gods, while they appear in folktales as cunning and deceitful creatures. They are depicted as animals with conflicting attributes in different cultures and countries.

And we can also consider the fox a symbol of nature, as it is very cautious about people. Through this project and the beautiful nature of the southern islands, we would like people to think about the future of us humans and the planet.