Chitose Hara < RECENT • 2025 >

She has publicly criticized the "commodification of cuteness" in Japanese product exports. In a viral 2020 interview with Pen magazine, she stated: "We have confused simplicity with emptiness. My objects are not simple. They are complex systems stripped of noise."

Though she spends much of the series seated at a console, her character design is distinct. She possesses a mature, composed aesthetic that contrasts well with the younger, more erratic students of the Asticassia School of Technology. She looks like someone who has seen the ugliness of the world, offering a visual contrast to the sterile, privileged environment of the school. chitose hara

Hara had painted the scroll using a mixture of sumi ink and actual volcanic ash from Mount Tarumae. Visitors’ footprints gradually erased the image over the three-month exhibition. It was a radical statement on the ephemerality of culture and the violence of tourism. They are complex systems stripped of noise