Here is a little girl staring at you. Her face seems to be filled with fury. You don't know what makes this little girl so upset. Anyway she keeps staring at you with great anger and it makes you so uncomfortable that you want to apologize to her for something. Yet there is nothing to apologize. You are getting more and more uncomfortable and you finally get away from the picture of Nara Yoshitomo.

An exhibition of Nara Yoshitomo's works, Yoshitomo NARA _ From the Depth of My Drawer, is currently being held at Rodin Gallery, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul. I accidentally got this great opportunity to go appreciating his work. The first impression I got at the museum was 'chill.' The girl in the picture in front of the entrance was staring at me with sharp, apathetic face. Before going there, I expected some kinds of heart-warming cute little drawings because the title of the exhibition, From the Depth of My Drawer, gave me warm, reminiscent feeling; however, after I got to the museum and saw some of the paintings, I realized what the word 'depth' really means.

Most of the girls in the paintings(or drawings) looked somewhat angry. I could read distrust to the world from the girls' faces. The girl in a perfect world of a painting stares at the outside world with a scornful face and sometimes sneers at us. She must be feeling sorry for us who live in the world. I felt small and had nothing to say in front of this impudent little girl. What she thinks is true. The world is full of every kind of dirty things. Everyday news on TV proves that she is right.

At the peak of the exhibition, Nara Yoshitomo plainly says what we have guessed during the tour. He said, "I don't care a fuck about everything." It is very cold words. He doesn't care anything about our world now. He is exhausted. He is burned up, whether or not he's ever tried to work on it. It is said that the opposite word of love is not hatred, it's apathy. The artist shows complete apathy through the girl.

Nara Yoshitomo, however, shows hope from time to time. There was a slide show of pictures of the artist. All the people in them was smiling. Look happy, energetic. And the drawing titled Keep Your Chin Up! was full of hope. He has cynical view of the world(It is said that this comes from his childhood experience) yet still holds a small piece of hope in his hand. At the end of the exhibition, the artist makes a little effort to improve the world with the drawing 'No Nukes.'

The exhibition seemed to have no consistent theme. From anger to hope, cold sneer to warm smile, complete apathy to no nukes campaign. However, all those works mixed in the place and made a perfect sense to us. The depth of our drawer, we all have the same thing in it. Probably this is how he has received such a great deal of attention from the world.


Keep Your Chin Up!


Yoshitomo NARA _ From the Depth of My Drawer


Seoul House specially built for Korean fans


Fans' Drawings


Peeking in the Artist's Workroom