YAMBARU ART FESTIVAL
2023-2024

SATELLITE PROGRAM

Abu and Habu

In a collection of photographs I saw in Okinawa, I was fascinated by the inked hands of a grandmother.
Hajichi once adorned the hands of women from the Amami Islands to Yonaguni Island. The women admired the hajichi and competed with each other to see whose hands were the most beautiful.

Later, with the prohibition of tattooing, the value of hands was changed to that of ugliness, and people even thought that if they had a hajichi, men would not take them away.
The wrinkled hands and hajichi I saw were strong and cool, not the hands of young women.

I think that as women get older, their strength begins to emerge as their skin peels off and their fears disappear.
I am sure that she could catch a hubby.

Nowadays, we can only see the Hajichi of those days in pictures, but I would like to see the beautiful hands of this time period again.

Abu = grandmother (Yonaguni dialect)

PROFILE

Keeenue

PROFILE

Shonan-based artist born in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1992. She has been involved in a wide range of activities, such as creating mural works, presenting paintings and three-dimensional works, and providing artwork. Keeenue is a word coined from the Japanese katakana reading of her real name KANA. Keeenue's creative worldview, which continues to change without being limited by style or genre, is supported by many people both in Japan and abroad. Her numerous collaborations with Nike, Facebook, Sapporo Beer, and others have also attracted attention. Major solo exhibitions and projects include "Roppongi Art Night" (2023), "The Me in the Mirror" (OIL by Bijutsu Techo/2022), and "PROJECT ATAMI" (2022).