Noriko Okaku
Noriko Okaku (born Japan, 1979) currently lives and works in London, UK.
She received a BA from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of Arts London (London, UK) in 2003 and an MA from the Royal College of Art (London, UK) in 2005.
Okaku is the winner of several awards, including PRIZE for Best Music Video, Ottawa International Animation Festival (Ottawa, Canada) in 2011, Best Audiovisual Performance, International Videofestival Bochum (Bochum, Germany) in 2011, and the Beck’s Futures Student Prize for Film and Video (London, UK) in 2003.
Her work has been featured in film and animation festivals around the world, including the 11th and 8th International Festival of Animated Films AniFest (Teplice, Czech Republic) in 2012 and 2009, the Ottawa International Animation Festival (Ottawa, Canada) in 2011, and the Swedenborg Short Film Festival (London, UK) in 2011.
Okaku has had solo exhibitions at Red Gallery (London, UK) in 2011, and Hakobaka Gallery (Kyoto, Japan) in 2011.
She has been featured in group exhibitions at the Hakobaka Gallery (Kyoto, Japan) in 2011, Asifakeil, Museumquartier (Vienna, Austria) in 2011, and the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture (Moscow, Russia) in 2010.
“The main theme of my work is the exploration of the variety, eclectic nature and strangeness underlying everyday objects and actions. I attempt to alter the way in which apparently ordinary things are perceived. Elements are highlighted and their context altered. Looking at my work, the viewer finds their sometimes-complacent view of things subverted and refreshed. My video work incorporates drawing, collage, photography, painting and animation.
The intention of the work for films4peace is to express the fact that peace always exists if you want to see it. In the film, the word ‘peace’ is concealed within an abstract landscape—at times clearly discernable, at others hidden. The film is meant to seem chaotic. Like the principles of Ying and Yang, positive and negative, peace exists within chaos and vice versa.”