Andrea Innocent

First published on 21 May 2009. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

Along with cars and electronics, one of Japan's biggest exports to the West is ghosts. They entered the folklore hundreds of years ago and continue to haunt Japanese pop culture today in horror films such as The Ring and The Grudge.

These spectres are the theme of Andrea Innocent's upcoming show at Chifley Plaza: Love, Thieves and Fear Make Ghosts: Old Tales and New Forms of Japanese Ghosts. It's part of the Facetnate! 09 exhibition series, a cultural exchange initiative run by the Japan Foundation to promote the work of Japan-influenced Australian-based artists.

Innocent is a self-confessed nipponophile and her art takes after Japanese mythology, manga and ukiyo-e (Japanese woodcuts circa 17th-20th centuries). "Ukiyo-e appeals to me in particular - the efficiency of line and the ability to tell a story in a small space while still being beautiful," Innocent says.

Innocent grew up in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. After completing a Masters in multimedia design she travelled to Japan, living there for three years and experiencing a career epiphany. "Before that I had all these jobs that I hated. But I always drew. And when I was there I found that all these ideas started coming into my head."  

Innocent visits Japan regularly and her art continues to fuse Japanese themes and methods with a contemporary Australian sensibility. For instance, one of her pieces includes a supernatural figure from Japanese folklore - rokurokubi or "long neck". Often portrayed as female, these beings are like humans by day but when asleep their necks stretch like snakes and allow their heads to wander around. Innocent's version imbues the figure with a second more contemporary meaning: that of a modern woman trapped by marriage or work, who can escape at night into the city streets.

Innocent hand-draws her images, scans them and manipulates them digitally. Often photographs and other "found" elements are introduced. For this exhibition, the works will be printed onto handmade Japanese paper. "Luminosity is important, it's all about how the paper reflects," she says. "This kind of papermaking is over a thousand years old."