Tomoko Konoike: Medicine Infrastructure

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, Tomoko Konoike’s body has felt the vibrations of the earth as a new painting medium, and she has traveled and mastered outdoor techniques, sometimes using public works and sewing as media for her “paintings”.

“Medicine Infrastructure” which started last year in Tohoku, is a long-term project in which Konoike travels around the region and exhibits and stores her own works in places where she has a connection. She is currently working on a curtain work to install in temporary housing in the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake-stricken area. It will be one of the most important places.

Aomori Museum of Art has been entrusted with the role of “map book or landmark” by Konoike who is like a moving animal. Her request to the museum seems to reflect her thought that it will serve as a fulfilling intermediary to relay her traces to the audience through her new works and field reports.

Konoike says, “I don’t want to throw out messages or questions like a writer or an artist, but I want to take the audience to the very edge, where all that is left is their own bodies. When their body is exposed to this scene, the art will function like a richly care for the human instincts.