Kei Imazu: Re-figuring Histories
By Hung Duong

Portrait of KEI IMAZU. Courtesy the artist.
Tension vibrates through Kei Imazu’s oeuvre, where images that normally would never meet are interwoven to create unprecedented mise-en-scènes. In her surrealistic paintings, 3D-printed sculptures, and installations, all marrying organic entities with cybernetics, the ghosts of art history and imperial violence meet contemporary catastrophes—an encounter mediated through Imazu’s personal experience as a Japanese artist living in Bandung, Indonesia. Her vivacious tableaux convey a desire to confront her mother country’s dark past, as well as to comment on the socio-ecological issues of the archipelagic nation in which she currently resides.