There was an open application to have an exhibtion at Citycenter’s Sushibar + Wine restaurant in Helsinki. I applied with a concept of six scroll-like animal artworks which got chosen. The exhibition lasts two months, on March and April 2024.
The artworks are scanned pencil drawings that I colored digitally and printed on fine art paper.
The artworks
For the scroll-like format I was inspired by the Japanese hashira-e woodblock prints. Since I'm deeply interested in mythology and animals, I built the concept around the animals of East Asian culture. For the appearance of the animals I researched Chinese, Japanese and Korean art.
The tiger and the dragon represent yin & yang, the tiger being yin and the dragon yang. I decided to go with monochromatic coloring for them to depict the black and white (the dark and light) of yin and yang.
The two artworks also work together as a whole piece. The tiger and the dragon interact with one another and form a circular line of action between each other, similar to the yin and yang symbol.
The other animals are the Four Symbols. The Four Symbols are four animals that are viewed to guard the four cardinal directions in the East Asian culture, originating from China. They also represent other things, like the seasons.
The Azure Dragon of the East represents spring, the Vermilion Bird of the South summer, the White Tiger of the West fall and the Black Tortoise of the North winter.
The Black Tortoise is depicted with a snake in Chinese art because of the legend that tortoises couldn’t mate with other tortoises, only snakes.
