IOROI -URBAN / CONTEMPORARY ARTIST-
Biography & Statement
YUKI IOROI
IOROI produces paintings and three-dimensional works based on the expression 'words/texts'.
The texts are mainly inspired by human psychology and behavior, and question human self-perception and manifest consciousness, utilizing the universal human urge to start reading when presented with words and texts, and the unique 'communicating' function of language.
Neuroscientists have found that humans think about 50,000-60,000 times a day, 90% of which are the same as yesterday. What this means is that the same thoughts produce the same feelings, the same behaviors, and the same results, and the words that are habitually uttered from unconsciously repeated thoughts are assumed to contain negative elements for a while.
In modern society, such words are often devalued and misused, and exist as a powerful force that can hurt or kill others and our minds. However, if we consciously choose to use the words well, we can use them as a positive force to flexibly change the reality we see through our thought habits and assumptions, rather than waiting for our surroundings to change.
By layering text-printed paper like a maze of language in three-dimensional works, or by drawing the same words over and over again in two-dimensional works using stencil techniques, the work symbolizes the 'repetition/repeat' of ''self-talk'', the words that people say in their brains based on their thoughts. It also expresses the unconscious cycle formed by this ''repetition'', acquisition through repetition, habituation through conscious choice, and the results that emerge as feelings and actions. By visually clarifying the contours of the message of the work through the text, the work becomes a communicative tool that can be shared between the viewer and the artist, inviting the person confronted with the work to a place of discussion.
In the work of artists who have established themselves in the art world since the 1960s, known as text-based art and word art, there is a variety of verbal expressions, including questioning of politics, war and social ills, aphorisms, confessions from the artist's personal experiences, and works that add meaning to the viewer's perspective without any particular implied metaphor. The language is expressed in a variety of ways, including Many of the works in a style that dares to use public spaces, such as posters, electronic billboards and buildings, in order to make them visible. They are mainly composed of words for things that have already happened, or words inspired by existing events.
However, today, with the penetration of social media, any individual can access shared spaces, intervene with others, and transmit information, and we are constantly inundated with banal truths and flowing lies. In such a context, can we really still expect text-based art that targets things that are happening and events that exist to be effective enough to have any kind of strong effect. From these questions, IOROI's work is not focused on the ever-overflowing external events, but on how people today, who are constantly exposed to these events, can establish a way of life that is not at the mercy of what they see and hear, and what they can do to not lose sight of them, and to seek messages that can act directly on the inner lives of individual people.
What is reality and truth. Do we believe in the world we see or do we see the world we believe in. Through her work, she raises questions that raise awareness of the depths of the unconscious of our every day.
1980 Born in Shizuoka Japan.
2001 Study abroad in L.A for 2 years.
2007 Graduated from Tokyo Asagaya Art College, School of Image Creation.
2011 Moved to London and started a career as an artist.
2013 Back to Japan and held a solo show in Tokyo .
2014 Awarded the Special Jury Prize from the University of the Arts London Vice President, Chris Wainwright at Tokyo Designers Week Art Fair.
2015 Selected to exhibit at the international art fairs as ART FAIR TOKYO and KIAF.
2016 Moved to the Netherlands.
2018 Selected to exhibit at Artrooms in London.
2019 Selected for the category of Three-dimensional and Design of Aesthetica Art Prize as a longlisted artist.
2023 Back to Japan, works and based in Shizuoka.
Yuki blends the delicate material of paper with a bold and thoughtfully confrontational graphic style. She overlaps text with imagery to question our perceptions of self. She sees the power of words to be extremely evocative within her visual messages. Words for her have a unique power, they “…are beautiful and cruel. They have the power to save, change and kill people”. She describes words as powerful tools that are sometimes underestimated and misused. But that there is an optimism that we can change ourselves by choosing to use them well. It is an impowering statement of human opportunity, but one that comes with responsibility.
Eyes are often portrayed across cultures as portals to the soul, Yuki replaces them with words. This elevates the power of the word but also de-personalises the subject so that it could be anyone.
“If the words in the artwork personally resonates in your mind, the person in the artwork can be you.”
by Emma Wilson, Art Historian, Curator and Writer