The works of Romisa Sakaki are built around the concept of alienation weaving themes of anxiety, insecurity and liminality. The paintings are autonomous, self-governing, and not geographically or regionally limited, but subsisting in an imagined place. The artist raises questions of human existence, virtual, concrete or imagined. Sakaki goes beyond the physical and into the psychological and social realm of group interactions. She is said to look “doubtfully at the people who are having a good time together,” judging the sincerity in their relations. She expresses this through her imagery, i.e. sunglasses – in sunlight they are an everyday accessory, but her repetition of the image suggests the element depicts separation.
The signs and signifiers in Romisa Sakaki’s paintings are universal and focus on duality, where images have two-sided meanings. Her use of diverse colors and a vibrant palette in a flat, or single-layered, painting style is indicative of a shattered or collapsed moment, when one would experience isolation. While the theme of alienation in her work can thought of as difficult, much like the experience, her style can be celebrated as a return to painterly painting.
Amirhossein Bayani