Yuna Kimura is a multi-talented creator whose acrylic plate artworks and accessories have been getting noticed, of late. A graduate student at Kobe University who also has experience in handcrafting and laser cutting, she's active in the Kansai area but has also exhibited and sold her works on consignment in Osaka and Tokyo.

In addition to producing art, she was MC last year for “Cinema Renaissance,” a show on community radio station FM MOOV, she makes occasional appearances in music videos, and she's currently a 2020 pre-entry contestant and plans to enter the main competition in the Kodansha-sponsored Miss iD contest.

Transparent and often in unusual shapes and containing pieces of messages, letters, numbers and symbols in various languages, her works have a futuristic, sci-fi feel to them. Recently, she has also been making works which take on the shape of everyday items such as milk cartons and chopsticks, cassette tape covers, commuter pass cases and Reversi sets.

We reached out to Yuna ask her about her work and the sources of her inspiration.

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Artist Interview

What is your vision behind your acrylic works?

I’ve always been fascinated by words, numbers and symbols, and I particularly like merchandise patterned with motifs containing math formulas or meaningless combinations of Japanese or Chinese characters. But I also have preferences within this. I don’t care for the typical English text patterns considered cool in Japan. Instead, I like somewhat surrealistic letter combinations like the nuance conveyed by the logo of British fashion brand Superdry [which always includes the nonsensical Japanese phrase 極度乾燥（しなさい) kyokudo kansō shinasai, literally “extreme dry (do it)”]. The problem is you can’t come across this kind of merchandise without going out to find it by yourself and digging it up. “Since I like it so much,” I thought to myself,” why don’t I go ahead and make some ‘letter merchandise’ of my own?” And that’s how I started making artworks by engraving letters into transparent acrylic plates.

Even more than the transparency of the material I work in, however, I attach importance to these ‘meaningless letters.’ I consciously seek to inscribe my works with everyday language and traces of communication which easily appear then disappear, as well as candid, casual phrases. I take this ambiguous language, copy it onto transparent acrylic and make the letters appear through the colorless method of engraving.

Thus, I produce this series of accessories and merchandise which I call aclylic. (a portmanteau of acrylic and lyric), works which are very ambiguous and elusive and yet unmistakably existing as ‘something’ in our world. An ambiguous and elusive thing which we nevertheless rely on: doesn’t that sound familiar to all of us?

What about your most recent series of everyday items?

I usually sell accessories such as necklaces made from acrylic plates entirely engraved with random letters and cut into shapes (言葉の端々 Kotoba no hashibashi “Odds and ends of words”) and brass knuckle-shaped accessories (言葉の暴力 Kotoba no bōryoku “The violence of words”) in consignment sales in Osaka and Tokyo or through online sales. The other day, I tweeted pictures of a piece I made (オーラルカクテル(2019) “Oral Cocktail”) for an exhibition of works by the general public on the theme of milk cartons held at Café & Gallery Kinone in Nakazakichō, Osaka, and many people gave me likes.

Thanks to that, I had the idea that it would be interesting to introduce more of these “everyday items with buggy displays and transparent bodies” into daily life. Getting ideas from various people, I began making things like commuter pass cases, chopsticks and Reversi sets. Incidentally, aside from the milk carton, all these works are designed to be actually used in daily life.

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Works

"Everyday items with buggy displays and transparent bodies"

Chopsticks | 1,500 JPY (one set)

Commuter pass case | 3,500 JPY

Casette tape necklace | 3,000 JPY

《オーラルカクテルⅡ》牛乳パック Oral Cocktail II (milk carton) | 12,000 JPY

Clear Reversi set | 7,000 JPY

《言葉の暴力》メリケンサック kotoba no bōryoku "The violence of words" (knuckles), 5 mm thick, 8 mm thick | 3,000 JPY, 3,200 JPY

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aclylic. series

aclylic. necklace 《言葉の端々》kotoba no hashibashi "Odds and ends of words" | 2,400 JPY

aclylic. necklace 《言葉の端々》kotoba no hashibashi "Odds and ends of words", small | 2,200 JPY

Buttons 11 mm (set of 10), 30 mm (set of 3), 50 mm, 70 mm | 500 JPY , 700 JPY, 500 JPY, 700 JPY

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Profile

Yuna Kimura

• Born in Tokushima Prefecture.
• Kwansei Gakuin University, B.A. in Literature
• Graduate student at Kobe University
• A multi-talented creator working with everything from handcrafting to laser cutting, she’s active in the Kansai area. In addition to producing art, she also makes occasional appearances in music videos and expresses herself through self-portraits.
• Last year, for the entire year, she was MC on “Cinema Renaissance,” a show on community radio station FM MOOV.
• As of April, 2019, she’s pursuing her graduate studies and decided to enter the Miss iD contest. In addition to creating an additional channel to express herself as an artist, Yuna had another reason she wanted to enter. As a form of activism, she hopes to increase awareness of polyamory, which is both her sexual identity and her lifestyle choice, and highlight the possibilities of an inclusive and diverse society. Finally, she entered the contest to expand her range of activities as someone who is "eager to try all kinds of things."

Links

• 奇譚工房 Kitan Kōbō @kitankoubou
• 杞憂ちゃん Kiyū-chan @jocojocochijoco
• Acrylic plate artworks and Installation art @arimoshinaikoto
• (online sales on Twitter, exhibited works on Instagram)
• Homepage: Yuna's artworks

Consignment sales

Consignment sales under the Kitan Kōbō name at the following shops:

• Café & Bar Matching Mole (Koenji, Tokyo)
• JAM POT (Nakazakichō, Osaka)
• Osaka GARASTORE (Namba, Osaka)

Online sales

• Aclylic. online sales (Twitter online sales account)
• Twitter ID: @arimoshinaikoto
• Account on handmade online shop Creema

Her casette tape necklace ships internationally through Creema. If you're interested in purchasing any of her other works shown here, please contact Yuna through DM on her Twitter account @arimoshinaikoto.