Yumemi Hiraki

The bitter-sweet shifting sentiments of her… 

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In this collaborative exhibition, Yumemi Hiraki and Corinna Howell reconcile with change and loss towards a loved one, creating visceral layers of forgone memories.

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Obaachan:

Yumemi explores the relationship she had with her grandmother, grasping the reality of her recent passing. She reflects on nostalgic memories shared; the play, the songs and her comfort, together with the seeping sense of guilt for the realities of times spent apart and the weight of her untold stories that can never be recovered. As a hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor), an early widower and person with dementia, Yumemi grapples with the significance of her grandmother’s experience as an individual and the unforgiving actualities of aging. This exhibition to Yumemi is a homage to her grandmother and the exploration of these eternal yet fleeting feelings, before they are also, like her, gone forever.

 

Okasan: 

Memories and relationships inevitably evolve and change, and at some point, they may fade or leave. Corinna aims to “fill in the gaps”; she is seeking to reconcile the changes that have occurred to the relationship she shares with her mother who suffers from depression and bipolar disorder. Selecting a few specific memories from years ago that were quintessentially mundane yet heartwarming, she aims to find solace in the reality of the relationship that has ensued. She feels the loss of a personality that her mother once had, and having lived countries apart between Japan and Australia, there is a geographical and an emotional separation. Now as an adult Corinna realises the gravity of her mother’s mental illness, and through her memories, she tries to retrieve and preserve her mother’s past identity that she once knew.

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Beautiful words by Yangi Sherpa:

https://www.theyanzieesshow.com/blog/how-to-understand-art

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