REBECCA BERNAU, HITOMI ENDO

Faceless portraits and outlines of the forest against the light might have seen incoherent, but they mutually resonate below the surface.

The term “Unthought known” was suggested by psychologist, Christopher Bollas in the 1980s, indicating “a state of having a vague memory but being unable to think about it”. It is a phenomenon that underlies Freud’s “trauma”, in which primal experiences before forming consciousness will have a significant impact on our later life. The key is a lasting mood at that time, and aesthetic experience in the infant stage will be counted as one of the representative elements which consist of “Unthought known”.

Rebecca Bernau, born in 1982 in Aachen, is a contemporary German artist. Opening her eyes to art in early childhood, Bernau studied art education, design technology, media design, and literature at Bergische University (Wuppertal). Her creational style, developing a craftsmanship in digital art and workflow. She creates sketches digitally, then transfers them onto canvas or paper through pigment printing. She applies over this digital blank with multiple layers using acrylic and oil paint, allowing the light, colors, and shapes of underlying surfaces to shine through. Her centric theme is the concept of “rootedness”. What does it mean for each individual? The artist explores the process of rooting and the elements that connect us to our environment, others, and ourselves in the whole-time axis of the past, present, and future. The portrait by Rebecca Bernau, in which “communication and relationship” are focused, emphasizes on the soft gradation of colors and contrast which appeals to sensibility and melancholy, instead of depriving facial parts and expression.

Hitomi Endo, born in 1990, graduated from Tokyo Zokei University with a major in Fine Arts. Starting from receiving ‘Sompo Japan Special Award’ at “the 33rd Nichiyo-kai Exhibition” (1999), Endo was awarded consecutively at “FACE 2021”- the competition of Sompo Museum of Art- as well as the Grand-Prix at “Debut 2022”- the 10th Exhibition for a new face hosted by monthly art magazine “Gekkan Bijutsu”-, receiving a unanimous vote from the jury. She is considered as one of the most influential young artists in the Japanese contemporary art scene. In the process of repeatedly painting and erasing landscapes based on her memories and dreams, the meaning behind them rather than the image itself emerges from the disparity between them. The works of Endo, in which traces of erased parts are accumulated and an aura of exquisite newness is being given off simultaneously wearing a feel of ‘deja-vu’, are ephemeral but strongly appealing to viewer’s sensibility with its’ clear and permeable color gradation.