
Hiroko Nakajima-Beckers
Feel the breath of a fire-spitting, wing-beating gryphon in Room 109. But whatever you do, don’t feed the ‘mysterious beast’.

Hiroko Nakajima-Beckers with her installation ‘The Gryphon’ (1)

Hiroko Nakajima-Beckers with her installation ‘The Gryphon’ (2)

Hiroko Nakajima-Beckers with her installation ‘The Gryphon’ (3)
Next to the bed in Room 109, German-based artist Hiroko Nakajima-Beckers has adorned two wall cupboards with pictures that, when taken together, depict the Japanese term for gryphon – the ‘mysterious beast’. The left-hand cupboard represents the gryphon’s lower body, the right-hand cupboard its torso. The artist has hand-painted flames on the wall, and the brocade fabric on the bed’s headboard also depicts a gryphon. The work is complemented by Maria Brunner’s Fetish Shoe drawings.

Hiroko Nakajima-Beckers, wall cupboard ‘The Gryphon’ (ink on canvas)

Maria Brunner, Fetish Shoe (charcoal on paper, 1997)