Kristine Aono

Kristine Aono
Kristine Yuki Aono (born 1960) is an American artist from the Midwest of the United States.
Her sister is artist Joanne Aono.
Biography
Aono grew up in the northern neighborhood of Chicago in Edgewater, which at the time had a primarily Japanese-American demographic, at her great grandparents home. She later moved to Orland Park where the demographic was mostly European American. Aono grew up in a three story flat complex filled with her relatives. Art had always been in her life, as Aono grew up in a household that used art as a medium to express themselves. She is a third generation Japanese-American referred to as Sansei.
Influences
In 1983 Aono was beginning to take an interest in art when she discovered her Japanese ancestry. This discovery would also reveal her family’s history and cause her to reflect on her ethnic identity. The materials that she uses in her art consists of everyday items which she uses to communicate the issues of lost heritage and identity that is faced by Japanese Americans.
Aono bases her work off a concept, then chooses materials that are relative to creating an experience.
School
College of Art at Washington University in St. Louis, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, residencies at the MacDowell Colony and Virginia Center for the Arts.
Art
She has several sculptures in her early work but is primarily known for installations. Her two earliest sculptures are "Cultural Inheritance" and "Rope Kimono", which were both released in the 1990s.
Aono approaches these objects and forms in a disciplinary manner to search and represent ethnic identity utilizing sociology, anthropology, history, and architecture.
In the 1990s, Aono’s works would use a different form of art called multimedia installations, where she takes ordinary objects and modernizes them in relation to Japanese American history. The history that she chooses to focus on is not only a part of her family’s history, but all Japanese Americans who experienced being placed in internment camps during World War II. Aono has commented on this, stating that “There’s a story behind each [object] and a person behind each story… The whole internment experience was about individual people… it wasn’t just this mass exodus.”
Exhibitions
Sculptures
Cultural Inheritance
Wire mesh, thread, charcoal, gold leaf flakes, Japanese maple leaves, wood, plaster.
111 x 48 x 20"
Josei
Wire mesh, thread.
17 x 24 x 5"
Twigs
Wire mesh, twigs, thread
17 x 26 x 6"
Cherry Tree Leaf Josei
Wiremesh, cherry leaves, thread
17 x 24 6"
Blue Dansei
Wire mesh, thread, sewing needles, paint
16 x 48 x 6"
Rope Kimono II
DesignCast plaster, wire mesh, fabric, rope, Japanese and North American maple leaves, wood, pigment.
59 x 48 x 24"
Obasan/Grandma Kimono
Hydrocal plaster, wire mesh, fabric, photocopies, rice, barbed wire
52 x 26 x 15"
Ghost Kimono
Hydrocal plaster, wire mesh, fabric, gesso, ash
59 x 33 x 20"
Kimono
Hydrocal plaster, wire mesh, fabric, rope, leaves, pigment.
53 x 28 x 12'
Leaf Kimono
Wire mesh, branch with leaves, embroidery thread.
66 x 91 x 10"
Sewn Kimono
Wire mesh, sewing needles, metallic thread, aluminum rod.
66 x 72 x 4"
Sakura Kimono
Wire mesh, embroidery thread, branch, cherry tree leaves
66 x 75 x 10"
Flag Kimono
Wire mesh, thread, paint, aluminum rod
93 x 72 x 6"
Formstone Roehouse Fish
Fiberglass fish, Formstone bricks, clay, paint, metal chair, plastic flowers.
36 x 72 x 18"
Installations
Relics from Camp
And the Bride Wore….
Deru Kugi Wa Utareru: The Nail That Sticks Up The Farthest Takes The Most Pounding
Issei, Nisei, Sansei…
References
Aono, Kristine. “Kristine Aono”. Web.
Machida, Margo. Unsettled visions: contemporary Asian American artists and the social imaginary. Durham: Duke U Press, 2008. Print.
Kim, Elaine H., Margo Machida, and Sharon Mizota. Fresh talk, daring gazes: conversations on Asian American art. Berkeley: U of California Press, 2003. Print.
O'Brien, Dennis. "Interned Recall Life in Camps." Chicago Tribune, January 19, 1997.
Knight, Christopher. “Relocations in long beach a generous, provocative show.” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1992.
Vela, Maureen, "Kristine Aono Interview" (2017). Asian American Art Oral History Project. 90. http://via.library.depaul.edu/oral_his_series/90
1960 births
Living people
American women artists
21st-century American women artists
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts alumni
Washington University in St. Louis alumni
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni
American artists of Japanese descent
Artists from Chicago