Keiko Ahner

They are among us, watching us, following us and comforting us, like a mother consoling her child after a bad fall. They are the formal representation of the hope that human beings need to find again, they are the spark of light that shines in the bottom of the abyss that is difficult to climb back up. We need not be afraid they are our friends, and Keiko's pictorial representations vividly demonstrate this White bodies surrounded by stark black lines are placed in festive settings, in celebrations and festivals, moments when joy can be felt in the air and vibrates in the multitude of compositional elements that make up these works. But, as we mentioned earlier, Keiko's production does not stop at the depiction and pictorial homage of aliens. The artist produces works with a more abstract flavor that are extremely expressive and interesting. If the Wasshoi aliens depicted joy and hope, the more abstract works represent pure feeling and emotion, having positive or negative meaning, residing in the human soul. In "Burning Thoughts," the air seems to be seething. It is hot and our limbs are enveloped in a feeling of warmth that at times could burn our skin. Inside the artist's soul is fire, there is agitation, and this work translates the feeling through image. Large whitish globes get dirty and are absorbed by a red backdrop, characterized by lines, scratches and heterogeneous elements that fit within its structure. One gets the feeling that this work, made of steam and gas, is in perpetual, slow motion. The artist represents a moment of the human soul moved by disruptive and fiery feelings, by burning sensations teeming with life. Keiko's art, as we have seen, lies between two worlds and between two different modes of representation, but the cornerstone of her artistic work is always the same: the depiction of the characteristics of the human soul, its frailties, its joys, its doubts, and the resolution to the latter in order to soothe and calm, at least for a moment, our souls.