Jorogumo Yokai

Jorogumo Yokai is Lena Bender’s creation, which is focused on the ephaptic interaction and self-reflection.


Lena Bender’s digital artwork draws inspiration from the Jorogumo, a figure from Japanese Yokai mythology, embodying the duality of beauty and terror, love and harm. This supernatural entity becomes a mirror through which we confront our own fears and vulnerabilities, reflecting the complexities of human emotions and the blurred boundaries between affection and destruction. Through a series of meticulous 3D animations, Lena explores what it means to encounter the monstrous within ourselves;  “the impulses that arise when we surrender to another, or when we mistake love for harm, ultimately demonizing what we cannot fully understand.”


Her work showcases the power of animation as a medium, and explores its philosophical and symbolic resonance connected to the ineffable sentiments that pervade human relationships and inner worlds.


The Jorogumo serves as a narrative and a metaphor for this inquiry, prompting viewers to reflect on the nature of relationships, fear, and unfamiliar projection. Through the intersection of art, mythology, and technology, Bender situates us in front of the beauty and monstrosity of the otherness.


— Mariano Sardon, curator