beautiful kinoko 

Curator: This fantastical acrylic-on-canvas work is entitled "beautiful kinoko," by Yoko d'Holbachie. I wonder what your first reaction to this mushroom-inspired creation is? Editor: "beautiful kinoko"—it’s cute, right? It gives me instant Alice in Wonderland vibes. Slightly psychedelic, maybe? Definitely a trip! Those eyes, so wide, are like looking into another universe. Curator: It’s tempting to frame it purely through the lens of visual delight, yet there’s also an unsettling strangeness. The imagery straddles the line between Pop Surrealism and something eerily uncanny, challenging how we perceive childhood innocence. Consider its use of figuration and abstraction as well... Editor: Unsettling... I feel it! Maybe it’s the way the character, or fungus, stares right through you, but that mushroom cap adorned with even smaller mushrooms takes me back to fairytale illustrations. Are we meant to find it inviting or is there an implicit warning? Maybe the title's a trick, like "Beware of the beautiful kinoko?" Curator: That tension between beauty and unease is central, especially considering its art-historical context. Surrealism, while aesthetically driven, often held social and political undercurrents. Does "beautiful kinoko," with its smooth surfaces and calculated composition, echo such earlier strategies of subversive charm? Is it a fun comment on institutional structures? Editor: Ooh, you're taking us deep! I was too busy admiring those color schemes and swirling details. Still, those innocent mushroom figures scattered below almost give it the feel of a fable...maybe warning about greed. What do you see as its purpose then, beyond surface pleasure? Curator: In terms of its place in the museum context, I think a work like this invites the public to reflect on how contemporary artists engage with art traditions, and maybe what these bright color compositions ask about pop aesthetics in current tastes and critical evaluation. What’s fun? What’s disposable? Where do fantasy narratives take us in contemporary art? Editor: Those are big questions...For me, beyond those heavy concepts, “beautiful kinoko” creates space to reflect on how we perceive things. Whether it is scary or nice might just be inside the eyes of the beholder, right? And perhaps how even an illustration of fungi, such as these ones, can still evoke feelings so powerful that one thinks so much beyond cuteness.