Hen's Mother teaching an art class in Japan
Brownister Hen was born in the small village of Takuri on Amami Island, Japan, in 1972.
Throughout his infancy, Hen’s parents taught traditional painting techniques in the local primary school. These happy years established a firm set of memories for Hen, with fond images sitting on the family porch painting the flora and fauna of the satoyama in his locality.
In 1980 however, when Brownister was only 8 years old, both of his parents were taken from him in a tragic boating accident. The incident left Brownister Hen with both mental and physical scars. Despite being miraculously saved by a passing sail boat, Brownister suffered 3rd degree burns which permanently disfigured his face and body.
After the loss of his parents, Brownister was sent to live with his uncle Tianichi Hen in the North of Japan’s mainland. The change in environment and guardianship affected Hen significantly and the disparity with his previously idyllic lifestyle was dramatic. Tianichi Hen was an industrial worker from a city environment and Brownister was required to work in a toy making factory to supplement the income for his Uncle’s home.
For almost ten years Brownister Hen worked on a repetitive production line fabricating small plastic parts for children’s toys exported to the West.
Despite these toiling years, Brownister kept alive his dream of making paintings to continue the line of creativity borne by his parents. By October 1999 Brownister Hen managed to save the funds to travel across the ocean on an oil tanker to begin his artistic career and develop an arts practice devoted to the name of his parents.
Hen is now proud and ready to announce his work to the world.
Brownister’s work utilises materials, processes and technologies acquired within the toy factory environment of his teens. His innovative approach combines these industrial factors with more traditional painting sensibilities attributed to his parents’ work.
The paintings display a bold use of colour perhaps reminiscent of the toys he helped to fabricate, but at the same time they demonstrate a shy and contrived design-based composition that perhaps reflects his physical insecurities and the safe repetitive nature of a production-line process.
Since the boating accident Hen has worn a protective facial mask. Once an embarrassment and source of mocking from his peers, this mask has now become an integral part of Hen’s appearance; he constantly modifies its style and remakes new versions creating a new ‘image’ for himself.
Throughout his infancy, Hen’s parents taught traditional painting techniques in the local primary school. These happy years established a firm set of memories for Hen, with fond images sitting on the family porch painting the flora and fauna of the satoyama in his locality.
In 1980 however, when Brownister was only 8 years old, both of his parents were taken from him in a tragic boating accident. The incident left Brownister Hen with both mental and physical scars. Despite being miraculously saved by a passing sail boat, Brownister suffered 3rd degree burns which permanently disfigured his face and body.
After the loss of his parents, Brownister was sent to live with his uncle Tianichi Hen in the North of Japan’s mainland. The change in environment and guardianship affected Hen significantly and the disparity with his previously idyllic lifestyle was dramatic. Tianichi Hen was an industrial worker from a city environment and Brownister was required to work in a toy making factory to supplement the income for his Uncle’s home.
For almost ten years Brownister Hen worked on a repetitive production line fabricating small plastic parts for children’s toys exported to the West.
Despite these toiling years, Brownister kept alive his dream of making paintings to continue the line of creativity borne by his parents. By October 1999 Brownister Hen managed to save the funds to travel across the ocean on an oil tanker to begin his artistic career and develop an arts practice devoted to the name of his parents.
Hen is now proud and ready to announce his work to the world.
Brownister’s work utilises materials, processes and technologies acquired within the toy factory environment of his teens. His innovative approach combines these industrial factors with more traditional painting sensibilities attributed to his parents’ work.
The paintings display a bold use of colour perhaps reminiscent of the toys he helped to fabricate, but at the same time they demonstrate a shy and contrived design-based composition that perhaps reflects his physical insecurities and the safe repetitive nature of a production-line process.
Since the boating accident Hen has worn a protective facial mask. Once an embarrassment and source of mocking from his peers, this mask has now become an integral part of Hen’s appearance; he constantly modifies its style and remakes new versions creating a new ‘image’ for himself.
Hen's Grandfarther.
