and-in-time-wrote-a-little-more:

Paintings, on the other hand, depict the single figure of a child, who quietly yet firmly returns our gaze like a reflection in a mirror. Here, Nara’s rebellion is distinctly personal and private rather than social or political. Nara himself describes the frustration of contemporary youth, particularly in Japan, as something that cannot be articulated in words because there is no clear-cut adversary. Perhaps these children in his paintings, with their discomforting expressions, represent the small-scale struggles that individuals face in contemporary society.