Name/Title
Kimono Target: OmotesandoEntry/Object ID
2016.09.01Description
Douglas Coupland (b. 1961) is a novelist, writer, and visual artist. He was born on a NATO base in Baden-Söllingen, Germany while his father was serving a tour overseas as a medical officer for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Around the age of four, Coupland's family would move back to Canada settling in Vancouver. He eventually attended Emily Carr University of Art and Design with a focus on sculpture. He later studied at the European Design Institute in Milan, Italy and the Hokkaido College of Art & Design in Sapporo, Japan.
Coupland's visual art practices utilize a wide range of media including assemblage, installation, painting, photography, sculpture and quilting. His works continually examine the effect of technology and pop culture on Canadian identity through large, geometric and vibrant compositions filled with Canadian symbolism and cultural references. Yet, right behind the playful pop art appearance of his images, Coupland discusses issues such as the change in the urban landscape, the sensory overstimulation from mass media, and social media surveillance. They are very much a commentary on the future based on present realities and concerns about what could be.
Kimono Target (2016) are a series of painted acrylic artworks that mimic the colour palette of traditional kimono. Coupland, who attended the Hokkaido College of Art and Design in 1983, became aware of the importance of certain colours in Japanese kimonos. The artworks reference colour studies of Senzo Wada (1883-1967), an artist and kimono designer who wrote "Dictionary of Colour Combinations.” Wada compared Western language around colour to the wide range of names give to the shades and tones that form traditional Japanese perceptions of colour.
Coupland is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy, an Officer of the Order of Canada, an Officer of the Order of British Columbia, a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and receiver of the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence.
http://www.coupland.com/about-contact/