The Little people

•

KI NO KAMI & NOGITSUNE

These two painting were created for the "Yokoso" Exhibition at the Wesserling textile museum, in France.

The paintings have been reproduced and printed on two Kakemono in 140 cm/ 200 cm.

I was asked to create creatures of the Japanese folklore. As I really like to find parallels between European and Japanese fantastic imagery, I decided to choose two creatures that share similar facts and stories in both cultures.

Ki no Kami

(Dryads or Hamadryads)

These two fantastic creatures both live in trees and their presence sometimes change the aspect of the tree.
Eyes, anthropomorphic bodies, faces that can get recongnised in the trees sometimes come from them.

They are known to give their protections to humans but the tree also works like a protection for them.
Trees also give them access to the physical world.

I used these thoughts and informations to create the image, adding the aesthetic of votive and sacred trees that can be seen in both cultures (even thought I did not find enough information for the japanese part...I'll have to make more researches).

And, to end the post, even if the kami often live in a bunyan or and indian lorel, it's in fact a type of tree that can be found in both france and japan...a quercus acutissima, the japanese oak!!

Nogitsune

(The Little People)

Magical foxes don't really exists in the French folklore, but the behavior of the Nogitsune can be compared to the behavior of the Little People (fairies and other magical creatures) that likes transform their body so they can prank humans.

Both really like to take the form of feminine ideal canon of beauty to astonish and then steal from men.

They both also really like to imitate humans rituals (I would say to mock them but that's my advice :p ) such as marriages or funerals.

Now, here are the 2 meters kakémono printed and suspended in the Grande chaufferie.