Yutaka Kikutake Gallery is pleased to present, “I Am a Girl Who Will Never Die. / Seance,” a solo exhibition of works by Erika Kobayashi from September 28 to October 23, 2021.

In her first solo exhibition at the gallery, “1F in the Forest of Wild Birds” (2019), Kobayashi engaged with the topic of nuclear energy, which she has continued to research for many years throughout her practice. Particularly turning her attention to the aftermath of the accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, she presented works that focused on the more delicate and subtle memories of nuclear energy. This marks the second solo exhibition for Kobayashi, a highly acclaimed novelist and manga artist, and consists of works inspired by Anne Frank’s words, “My desire is to live on even after death” –which became a source of motivation for Erika Kobayashi to pursue her creative practice. Also featured on this occasion are a series of works that illustrate ties to the artist’s father, who was born in 1929 in the same year as Anne Frank, and was a Sherlockian.

Erika Kobayashi has received high acclaim for her works inspired by things invisible to the eye: time and history, family and memory, and the traces left in places, presenting them through various media such as novels, manga, drawings, photographs, videos, and installations. In 2021 she is set to publish the picture book, Watashi wa Shinanai Onna no Ko (I Am a Girl Who Will Never Die), inspired by the words of Anne Frank (published by Iwasaki Shoten), and the novel His Last Bow (published by Kodansha) about the life and death of her own father. Kobayashi is also taking part in the group exhibition “Hirosaki Encounters” at the Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, in which she presents a new installation regarding the life of her father who was born in Hirosaki, as well as his death and the memories after his passing. This exhibition will present a selection of drawings and photographic works that serve to introduce the diverse range of Kobayashi’s activities in 2021.

(Mirror design support: Yuichi Urushibara (tento), Mirror production: Yuka Sawabe, Photo: Kasane Nogawa, and with thanks to Brian Bergstrom)