Kako Shirahata (b. 2002, Osaka) attempts to reconstruct images in pictorial space that superimpose her own features onto female forms in classical art and contemporary visual culture. Shirahata’s explorations transforming female representation from something that is seen into a subject that is shown began after observing the way images of young performers are manipulated through AI technologies and continuously consumed as objects of others’ desires in online spaces. Her practice of immersing herself within existing images, or superimposing existing female figures onto herself, is a methodology that arose out of an urge to partially assume the burden of the desirous gaze that these women are constantly subjected to. Shirahata positions this approach, which aims to reconstruct these types of images, as an attempt to expand notions of the female form to include connotations of the ancient mystical gesture of anasyrma.[1]

Female representation in art, as Midori Wakakuwa points out, is not simply “a reflection of the social reality or mentality within a community,” but rather “something produced by a group of creators with diverse intentions, purposes, and strategies.”[2] Sensitivity to the arbitrary nature of these types of images and responsiveness to the world perceived through her own femininity fostered an attitude that led Shirahata to her current explorations. These same factors also inevitably gave rise to her current trajectory of thought surrounding sexuality and the body.

The title of this exhibition, I breathe, and try to cry quietly, reflects changes in both the artist’s studio practice and personal life. Having moved from Kyoto to Shiga where her living space and studio space are adjacent to one another, Shirahata’s daily life is marked by fewer interactions with other people and a significant reduction in opportunities to be conscious of gender—an environment that seems to have had a considerable impact on her. While this change has offered a sense of release through the ability to “breathe,” the phrase “cry quietly” carries a sense of expecting to be seen, a gesture-like aspect to what should inherently be a private act. The artist further adds the auxiliary verb “to try (doing something)” and thereby imbues the title with a gaze towards the theatrical act of self-performativity. The works exhibited in this show are, in fact, devoid of any expression related to the act of crying, which prompts the viewer to consider the discrepancy between the exhibition’s title and the emotional expressions of the figures in the paintings.

Part of Shiarahata’s creative process involves using a mirror to imitate expressions from reference imagery in order to create a dialogue between that imagery and her own features. In addition, Shirahata began using photography after she moved, which has allowed to her to explore ways of superimposing multiple representations onto a single body. The artist asserts that she has no qualms about becoming someone else and altering her own features, and sees her efforts to encourage viewers to interpret the images she creates through the manipulation of facial expressions as being intertwined with the sense of control unique to a selfie culture where people have no issue with processing and transforming their features for the sake of another’s gaze.

If systems of representation can be understood as having shaped our world in conjunction with power dynamics, then Shirahata’s efforts to immerse herself in existing female representations—reinforcing and reconstructing them, and presenting them to society anew—also seem to imply an intervention in the very framework of these systems and structures. Kako Shiarahata’s first solo exhibition at Yutaka Kikutake Gallery showcases her current interests and efforts through a series of new works, including a large horizontal canvas with three female figures side-by-side, work featuring a new approach that superimposes multiple expressions onto a single figure, and the visceral depictions of her Flower series.

[1] In ancient Egypt and other cultures, this was the name given to a woman’s act of lifting her garments to expose her genitals. This act is also associated with protection from evil spirits and fertility prayers.

[2] Midori Wakakuwa, Hyōshō toshite no Joseizō: Jendāshi kara Mita Kafuchōsei ni okeru Josei Hyōshō [Female images as representation: female representations in patriarchy from a gender history perspective] (Chikumashobo, 1997), 8.

Kako Shirahata

Kako Shirahata (b. 2002, Osaka) is currently based in Shiga.  Her work reinterprets the ancient mystical gesture of anasyrma (a practice of a woman lifting her garments to expose her genitals) as an act that opposes the structures of the unidirectional gaze, and attempts to reconstruct images in pictorial space through the use of motifs such as faces, bodies, and flowers, with a thematic focus on issues surrounding sexuality and the body, exploring the possibility of transforming the passive, harmless existence of something seen into an active subject that flaunts its presence by superimposing the artist’s own features onto female figures in classical art and contemporary visual culture.

Recent major exhibitions include Re; Archive (Mikke Gallery, 2025), More Passion! (Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, 2025), Skeptically Curious: Multiple Approaches to the Transformation of Value (Mizuho Bank Kyoto Branch, 2025), CAPS: Contemporary Art Practice | Studio—CAPS 2025 (Osaka Takashimaya, 2025), Floor—An exhibition of artists recommended by Kengo Kito (Seibu Shibuya Alternative Space, Tokyo, 2024), and Pleiades Edition 1 (Gallery a, Kyoto, 2023). Major awards include the Mynavi ART AWARDfor Excellence at Artists’ Fair Kyoto 2026, the Kyoto University of the Arts Degree Show 2025 Graduate School Award, the Kyoto University of the Arts Degree Show 2023 Excellence Award, and the 44th International TAKIFUJI Art Award Prize for Excellence.