Welcome to the Hell

Under the theme of "cartoons with weight", Miyashita has drawn on the imagery of American cartoon animation to create three-dimensional works with a distinctive worldview. While working in ceramic, he has taken a sculptural approach, deconstructing and reassembling ready-made toys.

What Miyashita returned to was the basic act of "watching" animation itself. Rotating the jar makes its imagery continuous, giving the illusion of motion — the very origin of animation. Each individual scene is drawn with awareness of the jar's curves and elevations, guiding the viewer's gaze in various directions. Only by turning it fully in multiple directions does its whole picture reveal itself, yet the view differs by angle, giving it a painterly quality as well.

The psychedelic coloring dramatizes the absurd story unfolding within it, while its "gradation" suggests the ambiguity of various boundaries — the state suspended between consciousness and unconsciousness, the distinction between painting and animation, and the justifications of good and evil.

This work depicts a chaotic vision of hell populated by unrelated creatures — a cat, a mouse, a devil, and a red dragon. The devil is inspired by the paintings of William Blake, the English poet and painter who gave form to a world entirely his own.