Copyright © 2010-2025 Kaoru Akagawa All Rights Reserved.
Id, Ego, and Superego
2013
Ink stick, Drawing paper
Framed Size: 116 cm x 76 cm
Depicting my grief after one of my repeated miscarriages and how those experiences had torn me apart.
After several miscarriages and empty time without creating any work, I retreated to my room and devoted myself to my work day and night: writing to meditate and to embrace myself.
Writing has a soothing effect, as can be seen from the fact that the act of writing is adopted into various religions around the world. Creating my artworks using Japanese traditional kana characters, which Japanese aristocratic women had used since the Middle Ages to vent their feelings and express themselves, has filled my empty heart.
The text in this work is the musical score of "Death and the Maiden" composed by Franz Schubert interpreted into Japanese syllables. What I insisted on was to cross the borders between traditional and modern, Western culture and Eastern, music and calligraphy. Through my globe-trotting background, "Crossing Borders" has become one of the core ideas of my work.
