Gallery Yukiko Nakajima is pleased to present the solo exhibition ASADA.She insists that women continuously fight to develop their careers, protecting themselves. Her artworks are the representatives of protections they must put on unconsciously.Since she was young, she has questioned what is feminine and why people should divide men into women, which was her initial motivation to become an artist.

When you see the set of the pieces, anybody instantly becomes aware that these pieces are referring to armour, which is for protecting not men but women. Armour has been manufactured for men, even in European and Asian countries. And ones, especially for high hierarchy soldiers, were highly elaborated and well-crafted. Referring to this aesthetic and distinguished decoration of armours, we speculate that wars were a kind of ceremonial rites and demonstration. As same as these, she created decorative and glamorous artwork. Please move forward to appreciating her work in detail. You recognize the main parts made of ceramic. Conventionally, ceramic was not for objects but tablewares, such as teacups, dishes, bowls, etc. She manipulates soil ingeniously and ultimately makes out what she imagines, but they are fragile. Generally speaking, women rarely did not take part in wars in real. Likewise, women could not make their careers. After WW2, women demanded to work due to the changing structure of families and society and started to work for companies voluntarily and independently. Still, the kinds of occupations are very distrained. Recently, getting rid of barriers, chances of approaching jobs are increasing. However, in this period, she points out that women must guard themselves by wearing high heels and nylon stockings and putting cosmetics on their faces. Although men and women technically are equal, there are still invisible obstacles and barriers. She insists that women continuously fight to develop their careers, protecting themselves. Her artworks are the representatives of protections they must put on unconsciously. Ceramics materials are stiff while fragile; likewise, women's intention is solid while delicate.