Oshimai

In the exhibition Aska Mori presents what she describes as her “stress drawings”. Mori creates this kind of drawings, which help her regain focus, when she needs to express frustration. The artist explains:

One day, I was so stressed. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I sat down and started drawing lines on paper. I did not think how to draw or which colour I wanted to use; I just picked up the pen and kept drawing for a while. After about ten pages of up and down, right to left drawing, I felt tiredness more than stress.

For a few years my job was washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen of a restaurant. I just kept washing until the used dishes where gone from the sink. After the dish washer finished, I put away clean dishes in a cupboard. And I went back to washing again. Same circulation all day. After a while I just felt tiredness. Washing dishes, that’s all. Static. It did not go anywhere. These two experiences have same way of relief. These two repetitive actions does not go anywhere. My reduction of tiredness was like putting away clean dishes in a cupboard.

Aska Mori was born in Japan and is currently based in Stavanger. She has studied visual arts in Japan and England.