Shigeko Hirakawa was born in Japan in 1953. After studies in Tokyo she moved to France in 1983 for further studies and is still living there. During the last years in Tokyo she worked mainly with oil, painting geometric forms that were sometimes difficult to grasp with the eye. An example of this is a painting from 1980 where one might be looking at a mobile hanging from the ceiling.

After moving to France she worked mainly on huge wallpieces of mixed media; wood, cardboard, cloth and paint. During this period, geometric forms and movements still dominate. Examples are "Night Tornado ´90" and "Su é hiro ´85". During the 1980´s she also made large sculptures in the same media. One example are three pieces, which were exhibited in Salon de Mai, Grand Palais, Paris in ´89. Two of the pieces seem to be falling and might symbolise mummies or an old civilisation.
Another sculpture exhibited in Galeria Athisma in Lyon ´90 might express forced stability, the figure might be dressed in a national outfit.

During the 1990´s Shigeko Hirakawa has experimented with different material. She formed large wooden sculptures in smooth wave-motion forms or as bended iron bars, which might have transformed by the force of an earthquake. She has also worked on bleaching cloth, forming decolored pattern in red or blue. Example of this work is "Decoloration", which might express the powers within the earth or the sun. Another example of decolored cloth is "Tore & Torus". In recent years she has also worked on land art. An example of this is the "Genealogical Tree - Death ´97" where the treeroots are still on the ground, while the branches have floated away. This is a 130 meter long installation inspired by the death of her father. This enormous installation shows the force of the world of death and life that we can not reach. Another example is "Spinning Ellipse ´92", where an ellipse formed piece of earth seems to be floating in the air. Ellipse forms are dominating in more recent works by Shigeko Hirakawa. In here mind it symbolise the two magnetic poles of the earth and might also express the balance between good and evil, Yin and Yang. An ellipse is also a symbol of lack.

Shigeko Hirakawa is an artist of great talent. The advance in here artistic carrier shows that she is constantly developing, but always in contact with nature, natural forms and movement.

S. Gudmundsson

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