Yoshitomo Nara, oil on canvas, 1994
This Japanese artist belongs to the ‘Superflat’ art movement, a form of Japanese pop art based on manga and anime. Yoshitomo Nara’s figures are mostly children, often with wide eyes and a wide spectrum of obstinate emotional expressions. A generation that defends itself, bitter and aggressive. The artist reinforces them with a weapon as an attribute and an insulting title. Nara offers the unheard generation a place in society.
‘Balikade’, balika etymologically means ‘girl’, and indicates a melancholy referring to a lived childhood. There is the presence of many sticks that count as the Japanese weapon. As is often the case, he deprives his work of perspective and context, they are floating figures with a monochrome background, as if it all takes place in an other dimension.
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