Chiho Aoshima (b.1974)
Little Hope, the Chicken Girl(Executed in 2008)
Fiber-reinforced plastic, lacquer, sculpture Edition: total of 5 pieces
48.5 × 47.5 × 30 cm. 19 1/8 × 18 3/4 × 11 3/4 in.
Like a Sprite in the Dream with Bold Imagination
Chiho Aoshima's Little Hope, the Chicken Girl
Born in 1974 in Japan, Chiho Aoshima graduated from Hosei University in Tokyo in 1995 with a degree in economics. During her self-exploration, she was introduced to the creation of computer graphics software, which opened another world for her. She has not received professional art training but can break away from the traditional system of expression techniques. Her fantastic, magical and dreamlike unique style is highly praised. Aoshima made her debut in Takashi Murakami's Superflat exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2001. She has become one of Japan's most iconic artists and held solo exhibitions at the Seattle Art Museum, the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, et cetera.
Chiho Aoshima is famous for her creation of girls. Her girls are sweet and lovely at first glance, but they are different from typical Japanese beautiful "kawaii girls". Girls under Chiho's imagination are often with a bit mysterious atmosphere, combined with god, ghost, monster, or characteristics of the natural world of plants and animals, showing the Shinto faith and Chiho's individual point of view for the human and nature, life and death, challenging the popular definition of cute and docile teenage girls. Little Hope, the Chicken Girl presented this time, is her most representative girl theme and a rare sculpture. This work was exhibited in the 54th International Art Exhibition of Venice Biennale and subsequently toured to four cities, attracting wide attention.
The protagonist of Little Hope, the Chicken Girl is a little girl with short hair and a cockscomb and tail. Similar images have appeared in another Chiho Aoshima's representative work, The Souls and Flowers around Me. What is remarkable is that the protagonist's appearance here combines the characteristics of animals. The bright red comb, blue hair, yellowtail and soft brown chick fluff on the buttocks are in apparent contrast, which is gorgeous and full of colours, showing the highly mature use of materials and techniques. The girl sits with a smile and hugs her knees, looking up into the distance, full of hope, like an artist's self-projection, floating in a dream, roaming in the wild imagination of art. Her eyes without pupils are red, but she also has a pure smile. The fierce collision of surprise and lovely contradiction makes her even more beyond the image of traditional Japanese girls. In Japanese mythology, the chicken lured the sun goddess out of her cave and brought light back to earth, so it was also regarded as an emissary of the gods. Here, the chick girl of Chiho Aoshima also seems to have the spiritual power to communicate with heaven and earth, spiritually connected with the underworld universe and gallops joyfully in the imaginary world.
青島千穗 (b.1974)
小雞女孩．希望(二〇〇八年作)
玻璃纖維強化塑膠 漆 雕塑 版數：共5版
48.5 × 47.5 × 30 cm. 19 1/8 × 18 3/4 × 11 3/4 in.
如夢似幻，鬼馬精靈
青島千穗的小雞女孩
「有時我覺得我必須製作更明亮，更快樂的圖像……但是我真的很喜歡繪製黑暗，令人不安的世界。當然，最後，即使那些也應該很可愛。」
――青島千穗
1974年出生於日本，1995年畢業於東京法政大學經濟系的青島千穗，在探尋自我的過程中接觸到以電腦繪圖軟體進行創作，為她打開了另一世界。未曾受專業藝術培訓的她，反而能夠超脫傳統制式的表現手法，憑其奇幻、魔魅、夢境一般的獨特風格備受好評。在2001 年洛杉磯當代藝術博物館村上隆主辦的「超扁平」展覽中首次亮相即斬獲好評。如今她已成為日本最具代表性的藝術家之一，並曾於西雅圖美術館、巴塞羅那米羅基金會博物館、波士頓當代藝術學院博物館等地舉行個展。
青島千穗尤以塑造少女形象出名，其創作中的主角乍看甜美可愛，卻又不同於司空見慣的日式萌系美少女，而是帶著一抹神秘的氛圍，結合神、鬼、怪，亦或自然世界動植物的特色，展述日本神道信仰，及其個人對於人與自然、生死悲歡的獨特觀點，挑戰了少女可愛溫順的普遍定義。是次呈現的《小雞女孩・希望》便是她最具代表性的少女主題，且為其罕有的雕塑作品。作品曾展出於第五十四屆威尼斯國際藝術雙年展，其後並巡迴至四個城市展出，受廣泛關注。
《小雞女孩・希望》的主人公為一位短髮、有著雞冠雞尾的小女孩，相似的形象也曾出現於青島千穗另一代表作《我四周的靈魂與花》中。而特別的是，此處的主角外型結合了動物的特色，對比明顯的鮮紅色雞冠、藍色頭髮、黃色雞尾和臀部柔軟的棕色小雞絨毛，色彩絢爛飽滿，展現對質材、技法高度成熟的運用自如。女孩帶著微笑抱膝蓋而坐，仰頭望向遠方，充滿了希望的神情，又像是藝術家的自我投射，在夢中飄蕩出神，遨遊在藝術的狂想之中。她無瞳孔的雙目為紅色，卻帶著純真的笑容，驚異與可愛的矛盾性激烈碰撞，讓她更為鬼馬精靈，獨步傳統日式少女的形象之外。在日本神話中，雞曾誘使太陽女神離開洞穴前往人間，使光明重回人世，於是「雞」也被視作天神的使者。於此，青島千穗的小雞女孩也彷彿具有溝通天地的靈力一般，與冥冥宇宙中實現精神性的連結，在想像的世界中縱情馳騁。
