Reflecting on the Concept of My Solo Exhibition #1 - "The Unmelting Heart"

Reunion with "The Happy Prince"

While I was thinking about the structure of my solo exhibition, I heard a song by the K-pop girl group IZ*ONE that caught my attention.

IZ*ONE (아이즈원) - Violeta MV

This song was apparently inspired by "The Happy Prince" by Oscar Wilde. In a video for their fans, the members explained, "The members of IZ*ONE become swallows to return love to the fans who always support us."

Swallow = Me? Or the paint?

In my childhood, my mother read me various fairy tales, and "The Happy Prince" was among them. The image of the golden prince statue becoming tattered and the devoted swallow left a strong impression on me, and it is one of the fairy tales I remembered even as an adult.

As I was thinking about my solo exhibition, the existence of this "Happy Prince" strangely stuck with me.Could the relationship between the prince and the swallow in this fairy tale be similar to the relationship between me and my paint?

The prince was able to distribute gold and jewels to the townspeople because the swallow was there. I can paint because I have paint. Conversely, the paint can become a painting because I am there. I don't know which one is the prince and which is the swallow. At the very least, I am helped by the paint.

As I let my thoughts wander to the relationship between the prince and the swallow, I began to think about making "The Happy Prince" the concept for my solo exhibition.

What "The Happy Prince" means to me

So, what symbolizes the Happy Prince for me?

The answer I arrived at was "The Prince's Heart". Toward the end of the story, the prince statue, having lost all its gold leaf and jewels and become tattered, is melted down in a furnace by the townspeople. However, only the heart, which was made of lead, remained.
God, who had been watching everything from heaven, ordered an angel to "bring me the two most precious things in this city," and the angel brought the lead heart and the dead swallow to heaven. Thus, the prince and the swallow live happily ever after in paradise.

The prince tried to make those around him happy through self-sacrifice and carried it out to the end.
The swallow, who gave up its plan to fly to Egypt and resolved to help the prince, also breathes its last at the prince's feet.

I don't know how much they thought about what kind of end they would meet. But they saw it through. I thought that perhaps the "lead heart" was the embodiment of that strong will.

Artist Statement

The following is the artist statement that was displayed at the solo exhibition venue at the time.

Solo Exhibition Title: "The Unmelting Heart"

When humans first sought to draw, charcoal and earth became their paints. Over a long period, painters and paints have diversified together, and in the modern era, a wide variety of drawing tools beyond just paint have been born. The abundance of drawing tools is likely closely related to the development of painting.
There are countless drawing materials in the modern world, and hidden within them are hints for reaching artistic expressions that humanity has yet to achieve. As a painter, I want to find those hints and reach a new frontier in painting.
Just as the Prince's heart remained in the furnace and the swallow who stayed by his side until the end found happiness in paradise, I want to find happiness with painting.

This is a text I wrote with the intention of declaring my thoughts and resolve.
The art materials I loved using were discontinued while I was preparing for the solo exhibition,and although there were events that greatly disturbed my heart, it became a place where I could present the answer I had somehow arrived at.

[Exhibition Overview]

Mika Ieda Solo Exhibition "The Unmelting Heart"
Dates: 2021.12.4 - 12.12 (Open every day during the exhibition)
Hours: 12:00 - 19:00 (Until 18:00 on the final day)
Venue: Roid Works Gallery
113-0034
1F, Yushima Hightown Building B, 4-6-12 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
https://roidworksgallery.jimdo.com/
TEL: 03-3812-4712

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