shintaku kanako creates paint-saturated nude self-portraits

japanese artist shintaku kanako pours paint over her nude body to create vividly colorful portraits. producing each photograph in performances that last several hours, she covers herself in color, waiting for each layer to dry before applying another.

‘when I cover myself with paint, I go through the experience of mind tripping almost like a reincarnation,’ explains kanako. ‘it makes me forget of who I am, and the fact that i have a body of human being. the experience of mind tripping helps me to ease the fear that I always have in my mind–I constantly face the fear of fading sense of my existence everyday.’

shintaku kanako mixes starch into her paints to achieve the viscosity seen in her images. as the paint drips down her body she contorts into seemingly uncomfortable positions, as if dictated by the energy of the color.

‘using the media of the performance as a photograph, by converting it into a two-dimensional world, the individual melts and the individual disappears, creating a space for the viewer there,’ kanako adds. ‘by crossing the performance time axis and the photo time axis in the same space, my “still alive” confirmation action unifies this seat by creating margins. and i feel the possibility of expression in such places.’

‘through this work, i would like to expand the body and senses, try to break away from the self, and convey the freedom to lose one’s individuality. it unites with the world by creating margins attached to the body and views of life and death, not individual claims.’

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project info

artist: shintaku kanako