Instantly striking in motif, message and scale, Life is Only One! is emblazoned with one of Yoshitomo Nara’s most recognizable inscriptions – one that headlined the artist’s first major solo retrospective in Hong Kong, “Life is Only One: Yoshitomo Nara”, held at Asia Society Hong Kong Center in 2015. The iconic yet enigmatic phrase proclaims a personal and universal truth of childhood and life; Nara once explained that this expression “isn’t about physical mortality, it is about the spirit that never dies” (Wei Gu, “Q&A: Yoshitomo Nara Seeks Lasting Art After Japan’s Tsunami”, Wall Street Journal, 13 March 2015). Rendered in massive, bold red lettering, we are instantaneously confronted with the raw immediacy of the slogan’s thought-provoking suggestion. Accompanying this vehement yet slightly elusive exclamation is one of the artist’s quintessential large-headed petite heroines: her eyes tightly shut, our long-lashed sweetheart holds her arms blindly outstretched in front of her as her feet scurries her along the journey towards adulthood. While reminiscent of earlier iconic works related to sleep, including Sleepless Night (Standing) from 1997, Sleepless Night from 1998 and finally The Nightwalker from 2001, Life is Only One! stands out in its fervent plea to viewers, urging an awakening towards the fleetingness of life: according to Nara, innocence can endure in the face of adulthood, as long as we allow it to prevail. Executed on reclaimed wood, Life is Only One! is part of a celebrated collaboration series between Nara and design group Graf throughout the 2000s, which involved massive installations of wooden houses built from driftwood. The collaborative works toured many countries in Asia, as well as New York and London, and participated in the Yokohama Triennial. Life is Only One! was part of the project that was exhibited at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in the United Kingdom, displayed as a giant billboard atop one of the wooden houses. Nara sourced salvaged weathered driftwood and assembled the planks in a staggered fashion, achieving a unique rustic texture and an aesthetic combining the architectural and the readymade. The overtly aged nature of the salvaged wood planks offer a further conceptual linkage to Nara’s central message in the present work, activating contemplation on the relentless passing of time and youth. Reductive in both style and motif, Life is Only One! is a classic archetype of Nara’ strategy that draws on Modernism’s sign-like shorthand language of images to leave endless space for resonance for both the child and adult viewer. As early as the mid-1990s, when he undertook a six-year apprenticeship with A.R. Penck in Germany, Nara’s paintings featured thick black outlines, a richly vibrant palette reminiscent of Neo-Expressionism, and the flat, rough-hewn or ‘primitive’ aesthetic of sketches, drawings, and manga. According to Midori Matsui, these early works already demonstrated “the allegorical ability of Nara’s painting to express narratives through singular images endowed with powerful emotional appeal and enigmatic fragments that evoked associations” (Midori Matsui, “A Child in the White Field: Yoshitomo Nara as a Great ‘Minor’ Artist”, in Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works, Paintings, Sculptures, Editions, Photographs, Vol. 1, Tokyo 2011, p. 334). The artist maintained this rough-hewn aesthetic in his later billboard paintings, continuously cultivating his unique language redolent of Pop, anime, cartoon, and manga – one whose extraordinary emotive power endorses “the paradoxical strength of ‘minor art’, including ‘kitsch’ imagery’s ability to express the emotions of contemporary people” (Midori Matsui, Ibid, p. 349). Quoting Walter Benjamin, Matsui asserts the revolutionary potential of the ‘kitsch’, the ‘popular’, and the ‘heart-warming’, elucidating the era-defining phenomenon of Nara’s ‘minor’ visual lexicon.

Generating an expansive discourse around themes of innocence, Nara’s prolific oeuvre harnesses a profound message that is highly personal, universally relatable, and heartfeltly sincere. As Sarah Boxer observes: “If Murakami is Japan’s Warhol, impersonal and deadpan, then Nara is its Keith Haring, sincere and expressive” (Sarah Boxer, “Yoshitomo Nara”, Artforum, January 2011). Perfected over three decades of diligent reprisals, it is through the subject of the small girl that Nara has captivated the imaginations and gained the respect of museums and collectors worldwide. For this, he is indisputably recognized as one of the world’s most internationally acclaimed living painters.

巨幅作品《無常人生》所要傳遞的題旨可謂振聾發聵，畫面上的字眼語出驚人，那是奈良美智作品中廣為人知的語句，曾經用作藝術家首個香港大型個人回顧展的標題，展覽於2015年在亞洲協會香港中心舉行，題為「無常人生：奈良美智」。簡短的「Life is Only One!」字字鏗鏘，但其真正涵義卻難以捉摸，它道出關於童年與生命的個人領悟以及眾所周知的真諦；奈良也曾解釋，這個表述「並非寄語生命有限，而是強調永遠不滅的精神」（顧蔚，〈專訪：奈良美智在日本海嘯過後追尋恆久的藝術〉，《華爾街日報》，2015年3月13日）。四個大大的紅色英語單字顯得十分醒目，句中蘊含的警世奧義彷彿不假思索地迎面襲來。在這句情感強烈、但稍微隱晦不明的感嘆旁邊，是奈良筆下常見的大頭小女孩——她緊閉雙眼，垂著長長的睫毛，不著邊際地平伸出的雙臂舉在身前，腳下生風，急匆匆地邁向成年。儘管本作令人想起較早期關於睡眠的作品，例如1997年的《失眠夜（站著）》、1998年的《失眠夜》和2001年的《夢遊娃娃》，然而本作向觀眾嘶聲吶喊般的懇求，喚醒了大家對人生如朝露的覺悟：在奈良眼中，只要我們有意，成年人也可以永葆純真。

本作的媒材是再生舊木，屬於奈良與設計團隊Graf在千禧年的合作系列，該系列包括以浮木建成的大型木屋裝置。這些合創作品在亞洲各地以及紐約、倫敦巡迴展出，並參與過橫濱三年展。《無常人生》曾與系列中的部分作品在英國波羅的海當代藝術中心展出，當時，它作為一塊巨型廣告牌，被安置在一間木屋頂上。奈良四處蒐集舊浮木，再把這些飽經風霜的木板交錯拼合，砌出質樸的獨特紋理，凸顯糅合建築章法和現成拾得物的美感。再生木板的老舊本質呼之欲出，進一步在概念上與本作的主旨互相接合，教人思考時間與青春一去不復回。

風格簡練俐落、題旨長話短說的《無常人生》採用了奈良典型的創作手法，他以標誌牌般的現代主義式節略文字，為孩童和成年觀眾留下無限的共鳴餘地。奈良早在1990年代中期於德國攻讀六年制的藝術研究生課程，師從A.R.彭克。其作品以濃重的黑色輪廓線勾勒，色調豐富多彩，讓人想起新表現主義，亦流露出速寫、素描和漫畫作品上的平白、粗糙和「原始」審美觀。正如松井碧總結，這些早期作品呈現出「有力的情感訴求和讓人浮想聯翩的神秘碎片，體現出奈良優秀的繪畫敘事能力」（松井碧，〈白境之子：偉大的「小」藝術家——奈良美智〉，《奈良美智作品全集：繪畫、雕塑、版畫、攝影》，第1卷，東京，2011年，頁334）。奈良在後來的廣告牌畫作中延續這種粗獷特質，繼續耕耘與普普藝術、動畫、卡通和漫畫息息相關的表現風格，當中透露的強大感染力肯定了「『次要』藝術所蘊含的潛能，包括『媚俗』圖像在表達當代人類情感方面的強大承載力」（松井碧，同上，頁349）。引用本雅明的話，松井碧認可「媚俗」、「大眾化」、「溫暖人心」的革命性潛力，闡明了奈良美智「次要」視覺詞彙的劃時代現象。

奈良圍繞關於純真的主題，開闢出恢弘的論述圖景，他創作不輟，箇中深意發自個人心底，卻觸動世人心弦，由衷而真誠。莎拉・博克瑟讚曰：「如果村上隆是日本的安迪・沃荷，冷漠淡然且不動聲色；那麼奈良美智就是日本的凱斯・哈林，誠懇真摯且情感豐沛」（莎拉・博克瑟，〈奈良美智〉，《藝術論壇》，2011年1月）。經過三十多年的勤勉努力，奈良筆下的小女孩引發世人無窮想像，並廣獲全球各地美術館和收藏家推崇。有成就如此，奈良美智不愧是當今享譽國際的在世藝術家。