Medusa Collage

Aya Udagawa is a mixed media Japanese artist. At the heart of her art lies the representation of the nature and aesthetics of human identity, elements that every human being has; the fundamentals of being "human". Her process manipulates human faces and their composite parts seen from multiple angles, collaging them into an new, alternate image. She is not portraying an individual, but rather the creation of a new persona from elements of different genders and cultures, as she explores the diversity and complexity of the essence of human nature. Greatly inspired by the art of Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon, and their way of capturing the essence of human beings from their own, unique perspective. Picasso saw the physicality; the different views. Bacon rooted his work in the temporal; the different times. Aya composes the different identities. This series of work is titled 'Unidentified Portrait'. She focuses on the factor of identity itself, deconstructing it to release the persona, and then reconstructing them to allow the essence to emerge. These portraits have an uncertain aesthetic; a sense of lifelessness but yet organic. The sense of discomfort confronts us to see something that touches the human source.