Artist Statement

Awafuku and Komefuku

Awafuku and Komefuku (Cinderella story) is a story that changes somewhat as it is retold by people and becomes different stories. However, there is a miraculous link in that people were telling similar stories throughout the world. Is there something latent in us “left there”? How many tales do we have left there within us? There are the stories we read in children’s books, stories which people told us, the stories in films. I would include the slightly misinterpreted stories, made-up stories, and stories that resemble other stories. Why the memories of our happenings and deeds might become a story too! We are each one of the many main characters, and at the same time, one of the insignificant minor characters, in that story. Maybe that “something” left in us is the way of acting out the leading and minor roles.

Yumiko Furukawa

Overview

Awafuku and Komefuku is a vacant store borrowed from Nurigi Altar Shop, which was used as the gallery for the exhibition. Awafuku and Komefuku is a Cinderella story told from generation to generation in Echigo-Tsumari, Japan. The billboard shows a tanka (a thirty-one syllable Japanese poem) that Awafuku- the story’s Cinderella – reads in the story. The displayed artworks are the mallet of luck, which is said to have produced hair ornaments; an elegant kimono for Awafuku to wear to the festival; lastly, the snowshoe that Awafuku was wearing when she first met her husband. Moreover, a video of an aria from Gioachino Antonio Rossini’s opera La Cenerentola was recorded and presented from a show by Opera Novella.