桃樹春秋—栁美和個展
Peaches in Time – Miwa Yanagi Solo Exhibition

出生於日本神戶的藝術家栁美和，畢業於京都藝術大學。九零年代以一系列彩色攝影作品〈電梯女郎〉廣受藝術界矚目，並於1998年受策展人南條史生的邀請，參加了臺北市立美術館主辦的第一屆台北國際雙年展。即將於7月25日在非畫廊開幕的《桃樹春秋》，是栁美和在台灣舉辦的首次個展。

此次栁美和於非畫廊展出的內容為2016年創作的〈女神與男神在桃樹下別離〉的攝影作品，及2018年創作的錄像作品〈擲桃〉。〈女神與男神在桃樹下別離〉是栁美和重拾相機創作的第一套作品，主題源自日本建國神話：男神伊邪那崎與女神伊邪那美的故事；〈擲桃〉以丟桃子的雜耍戲法，隱喻了男神對女神的無情與嫌棄，而引起女神和男神分離的悲劇，導致世界一分為二：光明與黑暗、人間與地獄。

雖然栁美和選擇以植物為拍攝對象，但她關心的終究是人、是人性。不論是核災，還是對性別的歧視，一切都是人，都是人性所導致的結果。栁美和以她的創作，不斷隱喻、暗示：在歷史的洪流中，人類在生、老、病、死中掙扎，然而人性的冥頑卻始終如一，未能學習並記取教訓，不停地重複薛西弗斯式的徒勞無功。栁美和以她縝密的思慮、敏銳的觀察，細膩地表達了她對生命本質的觀看。

Artist Miwa Yanagi, a native of Kobe, is a graduate of the Kyoto City University of Arts. In the early 1990s her color photography work entitled Elevator Girls garnered considerable attention, and in 1998 she participated in the inaugural Taipei Biennial at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum at the invitation of curator Fumio Nanjo. Peaches in Time, opening at Taipei’s Beyond Gallery on July 25, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Taiwan.

This exhibition at Beyond Gallery centers largely around the photographic work titled The Goddess and the God Separate Under the Peach Tree, as well as the 2018 video work Throwing Peaches. The Goddess and the God Separate Under the Peach Tree represents Yanagi’s first set of works since picking the camera back up again, inspired and informed by the founding myths of Japan: the story of the Japanese creator deity Izanagi and his creator goddess sister/wife Izanami. The physical theater of the peach hurling in Throwing Peaches is a metaphor for the god’s heartlessness and abandonment of the goddess that led to the tragedy of their separation, and ultimately to the binary division of the world – into lightness and dark, world and underworld.

Although Miwa Yanagi may choose fruit and vegetation for subject matter, her focus is placed squarely upon people and human nature. Whether nuclear accidents or gender discrimination, people are always involved, and these are the results of human nature. Yanagi makes repeated use of metaphors and allusions in her works to say that the key moments of life, from birth to death, are fleeting, yet the stubbornness of human nature always abides; and attempts to alter it through study or learning lessons remains a Sisyphean task. Employing her powers of refined thinking and keen observation, Miwa Yanagi offers her observations on the essence of life.