Ciou is back with The Inner Land Part II, the sequel to her 2017 exhibition at KochxBos.
The work on show represents a development of the artistic path the artist took up two years ago, after travels to Japan and the wilderness of Oregon, USA. Fantasy girls and animals still feature in her work, as well as the heavily worked style relying on very finely detailed strokes of Rotring pen. However, these elements take on a new meaning against deeply colored cosmic backgrounds. The central piece of the exhibition, a depiction of the mythological world egg with in it a goddess that holds our planet, is her largest work to date. The dense multitude of Kawaii*-inspired animals, birds and plants evokes a religious illustration of the origin and order of the universe, but in Ciou’s work, cosmic imagery may equally be interpreted as a metaphor for travel within.
"The inner land for me is a new way to travel, inside dreams. It’s a way to see the world with fantasy, a bridge between two worlds."
Pioneer
A pioneer of the Lowbrow art movement, Ciou has evolved into a best-selling artist. Her hyper-focused pieces have found a broad palette of admirers all over the world and has found its way into the private collections of trailblazers like Camille Rose Garcia, Joy Wanders and Paola Hivelin. Ciou’s works have been shown in the Urban Nation museum in Berlin, Palais de Tokyo and La Halle St. Pierre, Paris and The Madre Museum of Contemporary Art in Napoli. It is also part of the permanent collection of the Museé de la Poste in Paris.
Now, 2019 brings us Ciou, with her new works featuring intense fluorescent colors and novel compositions. It’s a European answer to the Japanese Kawaii cosmology where a theatrical line-up of characters gives us a glimpse of the inner world of the artist. Take a dive - or a rocket ship – and explore the cosmic wilderness with Ciou’s nature burlesque girls and their animal companions.
Technique
Ciou’s works give the impression of intricate line drawings with fluorescent colours filling in the space between. But the process is the reverse of this. The base layer of a Ciou work is an assembly of coloured patches, in which the body of each animal or human figure is done in a single hue. At this stage, the picture is devoid of any detail. Once the acrylic figures are in place, Ciou uses Rotring pen to start adding a multitude of lines, mostly black. A main instrument of architects and engineers before computers took over, Rotring pens have very fine tips of down to 0.1 mm. This precision is a gift for Ciou, who uses the pens to painstakingly put in great detail and texture. Take a closer look at the hair of the girls for a prime example of her intricate strokes and the characteristic texture they create. Overall, the combination of colour blocks with fine pen strokes overlaid helps give Ciou’s works their rich, buzzing impression at first sight. At the same time, it invites the viewer to lose herself and closely eyeball every last bit of the picture.
“My inner land is born far away from home, it’s my secret place and I am happy to share this space with you. I feel safe when I am travelling in my unconscious. I hope you will too.”
*) Kawai
Roughly translated as ‘cuteness’, kawaii is one of the most frequently used Japanese words. Kawaii involves lots of cute pictures, putting endearing faces on everything from foxes and panda bears to avocados or an ice cream popsicle. In a broader sense, it describes a culture of celebrating all things adorable and embracing fictional characters as the embodiment of positivity. Originally a distinctly Japanese cultural trend, the concept soon evolved into the worldwide phenomenon it is today, spreading through many aspects of modern of life, including art, fashion, technology, and even food.
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“I work 10 hours a day on several pieces at once. When I am not in my studio, I am traveling for shows."
- Ciou, Amsterdam 2019
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Documentary TV Sarah’s Barbaren, 40 minutes<
https://www.vpro.nl/speel~VPWON_1181917~ciou-toulouse-sarah-s-barbaren~.html
Book Ciou - Collected Works
https://www.kochxbos-store.com/en/ciou-collected-works.html
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KochxBos Gallery
KochxBos Gallery - founded in 2005 by Esther Koch and Hans Bos - is committed to new and cutting edge art. Rewarded by Top Ten Independent Galeries by The Guardian we provide a stage for artists to explore their ideas of tolerance and liberation in high and low art. We invite you to enter an art world full of ideas and artists that visualise these on a beautiful surprising way.
The KochxBos collection moves in different directions: from conceptual, socially-critical art to aesthetic, psychological themes, from suspenseful to tongue-in-cheek. A divergent body of work, consistently bound by figurative and technical quality. KochxBos presents solo- and groupshows by a number of personally selected, inspiring artists including Zoé Byland, Ray Caesar, Nicoletta Ceccoli, Ciou, Dadara, Bethany de Forest, Meryl Donoghue, Martine Johanna, Sarah Maple, Claire Partington, Roos van der Vliet. Aside from art exhibitions, they also publish art books.
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Ciou – The Inner Land Part II
Opening Saturday 16 November, 17:00 - 20:00 hrs
Exhibition on view until December 7
Ciou will be present at the opening
KochxBos Gallery
Esther Koch & Hans Bos
Eerste Anjeliersdwarsstraat 36
1015 NR Amsterdam
020 681 4567
Wed - Sat 13:00 until 18:00
and all other days by appointment
