A twisted view on Japan’s ‘kawaii’ culture by Hikari Shimoda

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One of the most characteristic styles from Japan is ‘kawaii’. Kawaii is the Japanese word for cute and means pink knee-socks, pastel lolita-dresses, packaging with happy characters on it, cartoons of big-eyed children and of course Hello Kitty. The artwork of today’s featured artist Hikari Shimoda contains many of those elements yet I wouldn’t really call these pieces cute! Although very bright, soft coloured and portraying big-eyed children Shimoda’s work shows a torn and twisted version of the kawaii culture. Enjoy!

Hikari Shimoda website

 

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Thanks for reading! What do you think of Hikari’s work?

               

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