CORRIDOR GALLERY TERRACE

Period: November 25 (Sat.), 2023– March 16 (Sat.), 2024
Location: Corridor Gallery Terrace, Park Hotel Tokyo (26F)
Admission: Free

Deep within me, there is a notion of kawaii.
I know that also in you, such a way of looking at things exists. Yet, you’d have to agree with me that, from person to person, the intensity of such feelings, or number of times they take place varies a great deal. Doesn’t it? In my case, I can say kawaii is always present in me. I can’t help but marvel at things of all kinds that I consider to be kawaii. Even when faced with important choices, I ask myself “Is this reallykawaii or not?” Without such a concept as kawaii, I wouldn’t know how to look at the world. For me, kawaii is something utterly indispensable and essential, and I believe that living my life in a totally kawaii way is my duty. Right now, the objects that have the strongestkawaii appeal for me are Meiji brand chocolate bars, strawberry popcorn, and cupcakes. In my work, I address that feeling by making large amounts of replicas of those items, and arranging them in unexpected patterns and situations. My objective is not just to pile up a lot of those things together in a way in which an overflow of ‘kawaii’ ends up overwhelming the viewer, but to include ‘Miki Midori’s kawaii’ in each work in a way that transforms spaces and situations, infusing them with a blissful and happy essence. In my opinion, by taking objects I consider to have enormous amounts of kawaii appeal by themselves and enveloping my audience with them, I intend my work to help them enter a world where they can experience something of a blissful epiphany. I like to go into that happy world myself, and meet my audience inside it, sharing the experience with them. My greatest desire is to share my kawaii way of looking at life with as many people as possible, and fill the world with happiness.

-Miki Midori