Fiber-reinforced plastic, lacquer, sculpture Edition: total of 5 pieces

48.5 × 47.5 × 30 cm. 19 1/8 × 18 3/4 × 11 3/4 in.

LITERATURE
2011, Future Pass, China Today Art Museum Publishing House Ltd., Hong Kong, p. 89
EXHIBITED
4 Jun- 6 Nov 2011, Future Pass - From Asia to the World Collaterala Event of the 54th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezi, San Gregorio Monastery, Venice
8 Dec 2011-11 Mar 2012, Future Pass - From Asia to the World Collaterala Event of the 54th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezi, Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, Rotterdam
12 May-15 Jul 2012, Future Pass - From Asia to the World Collaterala Event of the 54th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezi, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei
13- 29 Oct 2012, Future Pass - From Asia to the World Collaterala Event of the 54th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezi, Today Art Museum, Beijing

PROVENANCE
Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

Like a Sprite in the Dream with Bold Imagination
Chiho Aoshima's Little Hope, the Chicken Girl

Born in 1974 in Japan, Chiho Aoshima graduated from Hosei University in Tokyo in 1995 with a degree in economics. During her self-exploration, she was introduced to the creation of computer graphics software, which opened another world for her. She has not received professional art training but can break away from the traditional system of expression techniques. Her fantastic, magical and dreamlike unique style is highly praised. Aoshima made her debut in Takashi Murakami's Superflat exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2001. She has become one of Japan's most iconic artists and held solo exhibitions at the Seattle Art Museum, the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, et cetera.

Chiho Aoshima is famous for her creation of girls. Her girls are sweet and lovely at first glance, but they are different from typical Japanese beautiful "kawaii girls". Girls under Chiho's imagination are often with a bit mysterious atmosphere, combined with god, ghost, monster, or characteristics of the natural world of plants and animals, showing the Shinto faith and Chiho's individual point of view for the human and nature, life and death, challenging the popular definition of cute and docile teenage girls. Little Hope, the Chicken Girl presented this time, is her most representative girl theme and a rare sculpture. This work was exhibited in the 54th International Art Exhibition of Venice Biennale and subsequently toured to four cities, attracting wide attention.

The protagonist of Little Hope, the Chicken Girl is a little girl with short hair and a cockscomb and tail. Similar images have appeared in another Chiho Aoshima's representative work, The Souls and Flowers around Me. What is remarkable is that the protagonist's appearance here combines the characteristics of animals. The bright red comb, blue hair, yellowtail and soft brown chick fluff on the buttocks are in apparent contrast, which is gorgeous and full of colours, showing the highly mature use of materials and techniques. The girl sits with a smile and hugs her knees, looking up into the distance, full of hope, like an artist's self-projection, floating in a dream, roaming in the wild imagination of art. Her eyes without pupils are red, but she also has a pure smile. The fierce collision of surprise and lovely contradiction makes her even more beyond the image of traditional Japanese girls. In Japanese mythology, the chicken lured the sun goddess out of her cave and brought light back to earth, so it was also regarded as an emissary of the gods. Here, the chick girl of Chiho Aoshima also seems to have the spiritual power to communicate with heaven and earth, spiritually connected with the underworld universe and gallops joyfully in the imaginary world.

Price estimate:
HKD: 120,000 - 250,000
USD: 15,300 - 31,800

Auction Result:
HKD: 144,000