Tokyo-based artist Ran Tondabayashi employs a variety of techniques including collage, illustration, painting, sculpture, and video to create unforgettable thought-provoking works. After a series of day jobs, Ran pursued self-expression full time following a friend’s suggestion after seeing one of her drawings in a notebook and in just six months, Ran was holding her first solo exhibition. Her practice is instant and fluid; “I create freely. If I like something I’ve created, I put it out. I never hold back.” Her visuals shake up a viewer’s preconceived notions by transforming familiar materials that we unconsciously come across in our daily lives into the unusual through a host of motifs: grotesque raw meat, a sign that reads ‘freak show’ on a television in the desert, collages of couples embellished with fast food, instant ramen transformed into a vase. With a no rules apply approach, Ran’s strange and bizarre world’s are intended to arouse each viewers imagination, with each whimsical piece remaining open to interpretation as she says, “Some people tell me that some of my work looks like it was created by completely different people, while others say that everything I do has a sense of unity to it. The nature of people’s opinions is demonstrative in my art as since our thoughts are so changeable, the way I prefer to express myself is too.”
