YAMAGUCHI Ai "anone" (TOKYO)

Mizuma Art Gallery is pleased to present anone, a solo exhibition by YAMAGUCHI Ai, commencing Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

Yamaguchi is known for her delicate portrayals of girls onto whom she projects her own aesthetic sensibilities, layering subtle emotions and the passing of time into their forms to evoke memories nestled deep within the viewer. In this new body of work, these girls appear as serene, tree-like figures: rooted, silent, and quietly resolute, as if anchoring themselves to the earth.

At the heart of this exhibition lies the memory of a single plane tree. Once standing in a nearby schoolyard, the tree had grown so large that it had enveloped a fire hydrant box. When the school was rebuilt, the tree was cut down and, upon removing the hydrant, a large, square hole remained in the trunk. That very sight of nature having shaped itself around a man-made object left a lasting impression on Yamaguchi. It captured the ambiguous threshold between presence and absence, the boundary between the natural and artificial, and the transience of things.

Inspired by this experience, Yamaguchi began to focus on the simple vertical line “|”—a symbol that connects plus and minus. Add a “|” to “−” and it becomes “+”; take it away, and it returns to “−.” This small shift can reverse an entire meaning. To Yamaguchi, the “|” represents a bridge between being and not being, a subtle mediator between opposing forces. Yin and yang, light and shadow, one defines the other. Though easily overlooked in daily life, Yamaguchi says this awareness is central to her artistic practice.

In anone, she traces the journey from “presence” to “absence,” and back again, mirroring the relationship between the tree and the hydrant. These new works embody her evolving aesthetic through the figures of girls whose kimono hems trail along the ground like roots, gently responding to the space around them. They do not avoid or resist obstacles; they grow around them, like that plane tree. Not resisting, not rejecting, just being. Within their supple yet unwavering presence lives a reverence for the unknowable, and the feeling of surrendering oneself to it.

Colouring the exhibition are new works born from fleeting thoughts and sensations that sprouted spontaneously in Yamaguchi’s daily life. These pre-verbal, unshaped impressions are gathered one by one and carefully layered into her paintings.

Standing before her works—tracing the flow of meticulously painted strands of hair, gazes heavy with silence, scenes unfolding from the fingertips—you may find yourself in a moment of quiet conversation, almost as if the work softly leans in and says, “you know…”