showcase #8 “Resonators”
curated by minoru shimizu
Susumu Okada, Azusa Yamaguchi
2019.04.12(fri.)— 05.12(sun.)
open on fri., sat., and sun. 12:00-18:00
opening reception:04.12(fri.)18:00-20:00
appointments are available on weekdays
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eN arts is pleased to present “showcase #8 -resonators” curated by Minoru Shimizu, one of Japan’s leading contemporary art critics. From its inception in 2012, the “showcase” series of exhibitions, as the title implies, literally showcase talented photographers and video artists. Most of the artists selected by Minoru Shimizu for “showcase” exhibitions are the award winners of “The New Cosmos of Photography”, an annual competition held by CANON.
http://global.canon/en/newcosmos/
This year, for its eighth edition, Azusa Yamaguchi (Excellence Award winner 2017) and Susumu Okada (Excellence Award winner 2018) will present “resonators”.
Also, this year, eN arts will participate in Kyotographie 2019 KG+. The theme of Kyotographie 2019 is “VIBE”: A VIBE is a distinctive emotional atmosphere, something sensed intuitively and deeply connected to our mood. Vibes rush over you when you meet a person, confront a memory or event, visit a place, hear a piece of music, or remember a particular moment. These invisible waves, both positive and negative, alter our experiences – they either separate us or connect us- In “showcase #8” we hope the feelings of the viewers will be awaken by their works transformed through their own lenses from the vibes of the objects.
Naomi Rowe | eN arts
→Click here to see previous “showcase” curated by minoru shimizu.
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showcase #8 “resonators”
“showcase” series at eN arts started in 2012, with the objective of presenting talented and promising photographers to as many people as possible. To further this goal, this year, for its 8th edition of “showcase”, we will participate in KHYOTOGRAPHIE 2019 KG+. https://www.kyotographie.jp/?lang=en
“showcase#1 and #2 – Neo Con-Pora: cool & critical” — featured various expressions among young generation that succeeded in “Con-Pora Photography” of the 70’s in Japan.
“showcase#3 – Japanese Portraits” — examined the expressions in Japanese portraits surrounding the fears about the unstable future in Japan.
“showcase#4” sampled constructed photography.
“showcase#5” was a show in which I curated “serendipity” to verify contemporary SNAPSHOTS.
“showcase#6” analyzed “storytelling” in photography.
“showcase#7 – photo & scan” was a comparison of different expressions in digital photography.
For the detailed information on each exhibition, please visit the eN arts website: http://en-arts.com/en2/portfolios/showcase-7/
The theme of KYOTOGRAPHIE 2019 is “VIBE”. To match the theme, I have selected two photographers who resonate with the vibes coming from the world. This is to say that their photographs are not of the objects themselves but are the ones to resonate with the vibrations created by the objects.
The two photographers:
Susumu Okada (born 1984)- Excellence Award 2018: Okada resonates with the infinitive time enshrined in the tiny particle of a stone. He becomes wrapped into the world of geological and astronomical times that continue to flow from macroscopic to microscopic nature, regardless our “human” time. Taking advantage of the characteristic of photography – there is no scale to judge size, Okada photographs a minimum particle of sand as a maximum universe.
Azusa Yamaguchi (born 1995)- Excellence Award 2017: In contrast to Okada, Yamaguchi resonates with the human time. The signs and memory of people, living or deceased, arise in her spaces. She does not become sentimental in them, but instead delicately amplifies the subtle mood and auditory hallucination into multiple images.
2019.04 Minoru Shimizu
Minoru Shimizu: Art Critic. Regularly contributes essays and critics for photography books, art magazines and museum catalogues. Major English publications on art: “The Art of Equivalence” in Wolfgang Tillmans truth study center (Taschen, 2005), “Shinjuku, Index” in Daido Moriyama (Editorial RM, 2007), “Fiction and Restoration of Eternity” in Hiroshi Sugimoto: Nature of Light (Izu Photo Museum/Nobara, 2009), “Daido Moriyama’s Farewell Photography in Daido Moriyama (Tate Modern, 2012), “Guardian of the Void” in Palais Magazine No.19 (Palais de Tokyo, 2014).
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Susumu Okada
I think everything in this world is without value. The world simply exists. The very fact that the world has no value allows one to give value to something and discover joy in the process. The freedom and joy of assigning value is “the value of the valueless”.
In order to express this, I photographed “sand” for these works. Extremely tiny, uncountable, seemingly without number – sand is supposed to have no value. I collected, selected individual sand particles, and enlarged the print to a massive scale to display the sand in extreme detail. My challenge was to eliminate the boundaries and the sense of value in size that a human recognizes.
I employed a microscope and digital camera. Sand particles are too big to photograph in a microscope, causing 90% of the image to be out of focus. So, I photographed a sand particle over 200 times, changing the focus again and again, moving from the top of sand particle to its bottom. I chose only the focused part of each exposure and combined them into a compound image of the sand particle using the unique properties of digital photography.
Humans classify things by drawing boundaries at their convenience in order to understand them. But fundamentally, a gigantic planet floating in space and the sand at your feet are equally the same. Everything in this world has no value and has total freedom.
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Azusa Yamaguchi
I felt innumerable images seen in the passing during the course of daily life influence our sense of values and that the act of seeing is even controlled by them as a result. .
I wonder whether allowing things pressed into our line of sight should be called “seeing”
Questioning myself, I tried to see the world with my own eyes and to reflect my own physical senses into my works.
Azusa Yamaguchi CV
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