(LOS ANGELES, CA) – Open Mind Art Space in collaboration with JAUS, is pleased to present “Rona v Amabie”, a window exhibition featuring works by Los Angeles based artists Aska Irie and Tomoaki Shibata. The exhibition will be on view in the gallery’s storefront window 24 hours a day from May 23 – June 21, 2020. Viewers are invited to walk up to view the exhibition from the sidewalk while adhering to standard social distancing guidelines.
Open Mind Art Space and JAUS had planned a group exhibition featuring a collaboration project by Aska Irie and Tomoaki Shibata, that was originally scheduled to open earlier this month, However, the gallery closed temporarily due to Safer at Home orders enforced by the City of LA, and the show was postponed until further notice. “Rona v Amabie” is a preview of Irie’s and Shibata’s individual works, which they have adapted for this exhibition to focus more directly on the current coronavirus pandemic.
Irie’s Virus sculptures were initially created last year as a discourse on how misinformation spreads like a virus. With the development of events over the past few months, they have taken on a more relative significance to the novel coronavirus. Her sculptures are hung throughout the window space in front of Shibata’s bold and vibrant mixed media works depicting abstract portraits of Amabie, a mythical Japanese spirit/creature often mentioned in Japanese folklore since the late Edo Period (mid-1800s) who is believed to have the power to cure plagues. Shibata recently started creating these works in response to the current trend on social media, a.k.a. the #amabiechallenge, that has been calling on illustrators to draw Amabie in a superstitious effort to protect people from Covid-19. The artists hope that these Amabie images and objects can serve as talismans to ward off sickness and protect passersby from harm.
