Yasuko Hirano: Anthem

galerie frank elbaz is delighted to present the first exhibition with the gallery by Japanese artist Yasuko Hirano. In Anthem, Hirano presents a series of recent abstract paintings, continuing her ongoing exploration of themes central to her practice, including the mental landscape, memory, repetition, and time.

"In my practice, I repeat the same processes and similar gestures over and over. But this is

never mere repetition. Through it, memories and sensations gradually change their shape,

and to paint becomes a way of returning to a place I already know, only to find a slightly

different landscape there each time.

Working this way, I have come to feel that time does not move in a straight line from past to

present. A sensation from the past will sometimes reach back and touch the present, or I will

come across a presence I cannot yet name. Painting, to me, is close to walking among

layers of time, memory, and sensation.

An anthem, as I understand it, is not a public hymn. It is something that stays within the body

across time, something we find ourselves returning to again and again. There are melodies

we keep humming without knowing why, and memories and sensations seem to carry a

similar rhythm, one that draws them back to some place within the body.

For me, painting is not a means of preserving the past. It is a place where repetition keeps

me in touch with the present, where memories and sensations are renewed each time, and

appear as new time."

- Yasuko Hirano