"Onna-bugeisha" « 中野 竹子 » Painting

Nakano Takeko (1847 - 1868), warrior of the Aizu clan who fought in the Boshin War. Born in Edo, she was the daughter of an Aizu clan official. During the battle against Aizu castle, she commanded a group of female warriors, all armed with naginata. These women had not been authorized to take part in the battle, so they fought independently. It was only later that this group came to be known as the “Women's Army”. While charging Imperial troops in the Ôgaki domain, Nakano Takeko was shot in the chest. Rather than serve as a trophy for the enemy, she asked her sister Yûko to cut off her head. Takeko is buried in the Hokaiji temple, where a monument honors her courage. This work was exhibited at Tokyo's National Museum of Modern Art in August 2023. "Memento mori: even cathedrals are not eternal." My painting is as much to read as to see. It evokes the reminiscence of being. How to retain what escapes? Can we resign ourselves to oblivion - the very oblivion of famous women who, through their commitment, often their resistance, have marked our history? The title of the series certainly contains part of the answer. It is thus well beyond the mimetic representation of portraits and bodies that I questions memory. My painting is posed, in movement, stretched, faded, making any representation appear or disappear. All this gives an expressive dimension maintaining a barely revealed relationship with literature and photography...