SHILO YASHIRO, THE PERPETUAL METAMORPHOSIS

“The world of art is not that of immortality, it is that of metamorphosis.” — André Malraux, Antimémoires

Shilo Yashiro is a tightrope walker!

She advances in a linear continuity while constantly moving forward, always venturing into new worlds and new concepts.

A complete artist from the very beginning — painting, drawing, sculpting, collaging, combining. At first came watercolor, oil painting, charcoal, pencil of course, wood engraving, metal engraving, ink and pastel. It takes talent, hard work, and perseverance to move forward in all these directions until mastering them.

Upon closer look, each of her works is both a beginning and an end in itself. A unique, complete creation, belonging to no school, to no framework. Following no pre-established path.

Shilo Yashiro is a perfectionist!

After refining her materials and techniques, she entered a world at once more complex and freer.

By combining watercolor, pastel, gouache, acrylic, and collage, she brought them together in bold, unexpected ways. Impossible? Audacious? Disruptive? Surprising? Fortunately so! Otherwise, why create? “If the world were clear, art would not exist,” wrote Albert Camus.

Each of her canvases is like a freeze-frame. There is a before, and there is an after.

Before — hours, days, nights spent layering colors and materials, drawing on different techniques.

And then, to begin again! If nothing emerges, it means one must persist, dig deeper, develop further.

Again, she plays with colors and textures, discovers a part of the canvas that begins to take shape, works on another, then another, never content with an imperfect encounter, and so she starts again — adding, removing, reworking.

The work is a whole! It cannot be a mere accumulation of spaces, of layers, of stories.

At a precise moment, it takes form, it is born before Shilo’s eyes, and in that instant, it reaches unity. The work “is” — for the very first time.

And after? Once it has left Shilo Yashiro, once the artist has already moved on to another creation, it belongs to us.

At first, we believe it reveals its mysteries. But soon, at a second glance, then a third, we realize that each look shows us a different universe, another canvas.

Shilo may well smile at this. The canvas is no longer just a canvas. It changes, it metamorphoses with each gaze, each passage, each appropriation.

There is no longer time, nor season, nor passing hours. That “after” is ours, as we rediscover, reconstruct, re-invent the work with each look.

Its former unity becomes our infinite multiplicity. Plurality.

Shilo Yashiro is an explorer!

Each work is self-sufficient. The mind, art, and thirst for creation are never quenched. Shilo is always in motion.

She draws inspiration from fleeting instants, traces of time, and always intertwines them with her “red threads.” A fish here, an owl there, little birds, horses, and a “Kiss” appearing now and then.

Shilo Yashiro dislikes repetition, reproduction, imitation. She approaches every work as a unique adventure, both technically and creatively, always seeking deep within herself that precious light at the very source of creation.

She does not dwell on technicalities. Not out of secrecy, nor discretion, nor modesty.

Much more simply, and very logically, because it belongs only to the artist she is, and exists solely at the moment of creation.

Before — there is the work. During — her universe. After — our emotions.

“Art aims to imprint feelings in us rather than to express them.” — Henri Bergson

Shilo Yashiro is nourished by Art.

By her creations, her discoveries, the techniques she tirelessly explores. By the artists she accompanies, discovers, and supports.

From Japan to France. From Paris to Osaka. From one universe to another.

She feeds on it, and she gives it back to us in return.