Discover a new side of Germany’s great capital – Berlin – visualized by a woman that grew up surrounded by a wall. Sarah Hidden’s pictures not only portray the Berlin Wall and its historic moments, but also urban art with hidden messages. They reveal heroic people and tell us about their destiny. They tell the story of a divided country personified by the TV animated character “Sandman”. They show the colorful wall that a little girl in West Berlin saw day after day and the black and white that came with it on “the other side”. They tell the story of a Guardian Angel watching over the people of Berlin and Goethe’s mythical Erlkönig hiding and whispering behind the trees and bushes of the Tiergarten, the city’s great park. They show products from East and West Germany and people’s desire to have them. They talk about a revolution, masses of people coming together shouting out loud “We are the people” – people fighting for their rights even though at the time they feared hard punishment by the state. And finally, they also show the new, reunited Berlin with street art shouting out political messages.
Experience Tokyo, the Japanese capital, in a new light. Excellent food, beautiful landscapes, fantastic art, untouched beaches and the best snow ever. Crazy costumes, love hotels, Mangas, ghosts, pachinko halls, luxury second-hand shopping and so much more. Sarah Hidden’s art works combine the old and the new Tokyo in an abstract, modern way. The image she presents of “her” Tokyo is not only influenced by her personal life and experiences living in a new culture, but also by famous contemporary Japanese artists. The base layers of her décollages are made of acrylic paint, antique Japanese books, pictures, prints, maps and paper found on flea markets in and around Tokyo. The picture of the former Tokyo is created by a combination of famous woodblock prints of artists like Katsushika Hokusai (1760) and others born during the Edo period showing astonishing views of Mount Fuji, breathtaking natural landscapes, ghosts and fantasy creatures. Mixed with Sarah’s version of modern street art, the pictures reveal Japanese modern life and history in a unique and
prestigious way.
“When I visited Japan’s first Banksy exhibition “Genius or Vandal” in Yokohama in fall 2020 I had a big discussion with my 9-year-old son about the identity of Banksy. He is convinced that Banksy can only be a man because “he is doing street art, graffiti, and parcour - running from the police. Naming YouTube as his source and supported by his friends that tell him that his mother is old school, almost 40 and doesn’t know what she is talking about, he refused to accept my attempts at telling him to be open for other options. So while my son’s friends already picture me in a nursing home and my pelvic floor, after having three kids, definitely doesn’t allow experiments like parcour and climbing on buildings, I created my own version of Banksy. The modern, female Banksy wearing Hermes, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci. Walking through a Japanese fantasy world. Visiting Love Hotels and hunting traditional ghosts. Shopping in prestigious establishments accompanied by a pug dog called Tutu wearing a Moncler dog suit. So, this summer 2021, when I celebrate my 40 th birthday and the Banksy exhibition “Who is Banksy?” takes place in Tokyo, you will have the answer: BANKSY IS A GIRL.”
