is there such a thing as too much beauty?

At the end of 2006 I walked into a small pop-art gallery based in nz - there, tucked away in the drawers was a print of the now highly sought after OctoGirls. For a long time I gazed at the print imagining kawasaki's technique - the meticulous pencil lines work & layered washes of oil paint & polyurethane. the gallery wanted $250 (and sadly) due to low funds at the time I decided not to buy the print & then discovered that only one year later it was fetching upwards of $1700 on ebay au. the decision i made not to invest in this ridiculously talented japanese artist was one that I live to regret. kawasaki's talent is near immeasurable yet


critics seldom have anything sweet to say. the often erotic placement of her work has been likened to child pornography, the impossible beauty of her subjects somehow sinister.

"American illustrator Audrey Kawasaki has been heralded as a ‘rising star’ by the art and design world, with enthusiasts hungrily lapping up her every brush stroke. There is no doubt that her ghostly, erotic figures are beautifully drawn and have been rendered with a considerable degree of skill. But there is something sinister about the ‘women’ Kawasaki paints. That something is the impression that these women do not appear to be women at all – they look like children".

http://www.designfederation.net

certainly Audrey Kawasaki’s art has a perverse flavour to it – Kawasaki herself tells IdN Magazine “it can be taken as ‘dirty’, but I see nothing wrong with that kind of association.” Neither do we, but one could be forgiven for thinking that many of the cherubic faces that grace Kawasaki’s lanky, underdeveloped figures appear no older than twelve. this makes her work uncomfortable, because the seductive gazes and open, expectant mouths of her subjects are at odds with their apparent immaturity. perhaps, then oddly when I look at Kawasaki's subjects I don't see twelve year old girls. what I do see is volumptous temptresses with a beauty that is both untouchable and wholly unreal. we cannot not, nor ever will possess their beauty, because simply, it does not exist. kawasaki's women are neither women nor child they are merely 'characters' confined in an impossible state, ethereal & enigmatic & unable to be touched.

www.audrey-kawasaki.com

http://i-seldom-do.livejournal.com/