B orn in 1980 in Japan, Indonesia-based Kei Imazu is celebrated for her works in which elements of global environmental issues, eco-feminism, mythology, history, and politics are juxtaposed on the same plane, rendered in her painterly dexterity and diverse employment of digital media. She is represented by ROH Projects, Jakarta and Anomaly, Tokyo.
"I love delving into tales of the past. Or artefacts, images, or texts that remain. Gradually, I weave those remnants together with technologies of today. "
Superimposing intricately painted biological imagery over contemporary environmental references printed on fabric, The Rain of Bullets is an intricate example of Imazu’s combination of traditional techniques with digital technology to explore temporalities related to Indonesian history, mythology, and ecosystems linked to urban development and environmental pollution in Indonesia, where she currently resides and works.
Imazu’s intentional choice of printed fabric is a subtle allusion to the Citarum River, the most polluted river in the World, near Bandung, where she lives. It is heavily polluted by textile factories that are subcontracted to produce global fast fashion, resulting in toxic wastewater and widespread plastic litter. This resulted in the disappearance and death of 60% of native fish species in the river.
"For me, folk tales or mythology are a form of belief of how, when humans do something against nature, nature will punish them in return with its wrath."
In 2021, two years prior to the completion of the present work, Imazu created large-scale series of 69 panels titled Lost Fish in response to Citarum River pollution. Her extensive studies on The Fishes of the Indo-Australian Archipelago by Max Wilhelm Carl Weber in the early 20th century, in terms of aesthetic structure, have created a visual lexicon that undoubtedly further informed those depicted in the present painting.
"Native fish species are particularly vulnerable to water pollution, and all the fishes apart from certain ones like catfish have disappeared."
The repeated plundering of local resources by developed countries and the resulting environmental issues are also referenced in the printed background, which features Sidoarjo, the world's largest mud volcano, as well as a natural gas mining site. In 2006, a vein was struck several hundred meters down without a drill cover, causing mud to spew from the vein and submerge 19 villages.
"The whole area is grey as far as the eye can see, the smell of gas fills the air, and the mud extends to the horizon. In some places, utility poles, mosques, and houses that were originally there stand half-destroyed and buried in the mud. I recall seeing such a scene in Tohoku after the 2011 tsunami."
Executed in 2023, the painting was featured in two of Imazu's major solo shows: unearth at Roh Projects, Jakarta (Nov 2023 - Jan 2024), and more recently in her largest solo exhibition to date, Kei Imazu: Tanah Air at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (Jan - Mar 2025).
In 2020, Imazu was a finalist for the prestigious Prix Jean Francois Prat in France and was invited to exhibit in dOCUMENTA 15 (Kassel, Germany) in 2022. Her works are also part of the Kankuro Ueshima collects ion, a contemporary art collects ion established in 2022 by Japanese entrepreneur and investor Kankuro Ueshima, alongside contemporary giants, including Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Bernard Frize, Damien Hirst, among others.
Following the artist's debut solo show at ROH Projects in Jakarta, Imazu has held solo exhibitions at Anomaly in Tokyo (2021) and at Museum Haus Kasuya in Kanagawa for the museum's 25th-anniversary exhibition (2019). In 2023, she has also exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, including Jeonnam Museum of Art in Gwangyang and Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco. With her rocketing success, Imazu also held her first museum solo at Museum MACAN (Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara) in 2025 (May - Oct), following her highly revered solo show in Tokyo.
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1 980年出生於日本、現居印尼的藝術家今津景以將全球環境議題、生態女性主義、神話、歷史和政治等元素並置於同一畫面，並運用精湛的繪畫技巧和多元化的數位媒體創作的作品聞名。她現由雅加達的ROH Projects和東京的Anomaly畫廊代理。
「我喜歡探究過往的故事，或是那些留存下來的文物、圖像或文字。然後，我逐漸將這些遺跡與當今的科技融合在一起。」
《彈如雨下》是今津景將精心繪製的生物圖像疊加在彩印布材上的作品。藝術家將傳統技法與數位技術相結合，探索與印尼歷史、神話和生態系統相關題材的絕佳範例。這些題材與她目前居住和工作的印尼城市發展和環境污染息息相關。
今津景刻意選擇彩印布材作為作品基底，意在巧妙地影射她居住地萬隆附近的芝塔龍河——世界上污染最嚴重的河流之一。這條河的污染來源源自紡織廠，這些工廠為全球快時尚產業提供外包服務，排放毒廢水和亂棄塑膠垃圾，導致河中60%的本土魚類物種消失或死亡。
「對我來說，民間故事或神話是一種信仰，它表達了當人類做出違背自然的事情時，自然會以其憤怒來懲罰他們。」
早在完成本作的兩年前（2021年），今津景創作了共69幅、名為《迷失的魚》的大型系列畫作，以回應芝塔龍河的污染問題。創作過程中，她對20世紀初馬克斯·威廉·卡爾·韋伯撰寫的《印度-澳大利亞群島魚類》深入研究，這無疑為她匯集了豐富的視覺詞彙，並進一步影響了這幅畫作。
「本地魚類特別容易受到水污染的影響，除了鯰魚等少數幾種魚類外，其他魚類都已消失。」
作品的彩印背景中也同樣提出了已開發國家對當地資源的反覆掠奪及其造成的環境問題，背景中描繪了世界上最大的泥火山——泗水泥火山，它同時為一天然氣礦場。 2006年，在數百公尺深的地下鑽探過程中發生意外，由於沒有安裝鑽井蓋，泥漿噴湧而出，淹沒了附近19個村莊。
「目之所及皆是一片灰濛濛的景象，空氣中瀰漫著煤氣味，泥漿一直延伸到地平線。在某些地方，原本矗立在那裡的電線桿、清真寺和房屋都已殘破不堪，半埋在泥漿之中。我記得在2011年海嘯後的東北地區也看過類似的景象。」
本作繪於 2023 年，曾在今津景兩場重要個展中展出：雅加達 Roh Projects〈unearth〉（2023 年 11 月至 2024 年 1 月），和她迄今為止規模最大的個展——東京Tokyo Opera Citty Art Gallery的〈今津景：Tanah Air 〉（2025年1 月至 3 月）。
在2020年，今津景入圍法國著名Prix Jean Francois Prat大獎，並獲邀參加2022年在德國卡塞爾舉辦的 dOCUMENTA 15 展覽。今津景作品亦獲日本企業家和投資人植島幹九郎（Kankuro Ueshima）收藏於其 2022 年建立的當代藝術系列（Ueshima collects ion）之內，與著名藝術家如格哈德·里希特、安迪·沃荷、博納德· 弗瑞茲、達米恩·赫斯特等人作品並列。
繼在雅加達 ROH 舉辦首次個人展覽後，今津景先後在東京 Anomaly藝廊（2021 年）和神奈川KASUYA之森現代美術館（2019 年）展出作品，慶祝該館成立 25 周年。2023年，今津景的展覽足跡更延伸及全球各地博物館和畫廊，包括南韓光陽市全南道立美術館及三藩市潔西卡．席佛曼畫廊。今津景在藝壇發展如日中天，繼東京個展空前成功，更於同年（2025年）在印尼努桑塔拉現當代藝術博物館舉辦首個博物館展覽。