SHOWCASE #2
curated by Minoru Shimizu
2013.04.05 (fri.) — 04.28 (sun.)
open on fri., sat., & sun.
opening reception on 04.05 (fri.) 18:00-20:00
appointments are available on weekdays
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In April 2012, eN arts presented “showcase #1- curated by minoru shimizu”. The exhibit showed the exciting works of four up and coming photographers selected by Prof. Minoru Shimizu. Attracting the attention of collectors, museum curators, art critics and photo lovers, the show was a renowned success.
Responding to the earnest requests from visitors to last year’s show, we are delighted to present “showcase #2”. The four noteworthy photographers selected, again by Prof. Shimizu who is a respected contemporary art critic, for “showcase #2” are: Hiroshi Takizawa, Ikushun, Tamotsu Kido, and Yosuke Harada. Each photographer creates his own unique appeal through individual sensibility and remarkable talents which transverse different aspects of photographic art.
We are certain that visitors will enjoy each one of these promising talents who are on the leading edge in a new era of photography.
Naomi Rowe | eN arts
→Click here to see previous “showcase” curated by minoru shimizu.
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For “showcase #1” I selected four photographers, under the age of thirty, creating “Neo Compora” photographs, an atavistic return to the “Compora” photographic style established by Mr. Shigeo Gocho in the 70’s. In other words, I created “showcase #1” around one common these: “Neo Compora”.
In contrast, I have chosen four photographers for “showcase#2” to contrast four different styles, in which each has his own unique creative approach: “still form,” “uncertainty of sight,” “athleticism,” and “shifts in atmosphere.” While I hesitate to categorize them, I feel it important to verbalize the characteristics of each photographer to help visitors to the exhibition gain better insights about what photographers are working toward.
Tamotsu Kido (1974- )
Kido studied under Prof. Hitsuda, who also taught Yoshitomo Nara, and is a well-known photographer in the Tokai Area of Japan. Unfortunately, his works have not been shown as often as they should have been. Taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity, I would like to introduce Kido’s deliberative works, hoping his will be recognized and appreciated in the Kansai Area as well. Please observe how he captures in the elements of form, e.g., the frames, layers, colors, and basic pictorial nature, the beauty of each object or landscape. “Photographs by Tamotsu Kido: Frames≠Layers”
Hiroshi Takizawa (1983- )
Takizawa is an up and coming photographer who started being recognized after receiving an honorable mention award in the show “Canon New Cosmos of Photography 2011”. Takizawa photographs a rock, representing “existence”, and then freely arranges photographs of rocks to create a new image. In other words, he photographs the image of an object as if it actually exists in front of the lens. As a result, we become confused, not knowing if we are actually looking at a photograph of an image and a photograph of the actual object. He tries to make us feel the uncertainty of how we view objects by playing tricks in his photography and disrupting preconceptions in the act of viewing. I, personally, am looking forward
to the way he would use two contrastive spaces, a traditional Japanese tearoom and a contemporary white cube, at eN arts. http://www.takizawahiroshi.jp/news/index.html
Ikushun (1980- )
Ikushun won an honorable mention award at “Canon New Cosmos of Photography” 2009 and 2011 exhibits. It sounds too ordinary to describe his works as “very sophisticated snapshots of extremely funny moments in our daily life”. Although his subjects’ athleticism may be beyond doubt, only Ikushun can somehow capture unique and strange moments that can only evoke a laugh. The actual truth, however, is that we ourselves are actually simply missing those moments all around us in life, I suppose. His snapshots are eccentric and funny, and sometimes we are unsure if they are cheerful or depressing — but they ARE daily life in Japan in the 21st century.
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/ikushun/
Yosuke Harada (1982-)
Harada was awarded the Gran Prix Prize in “Canon New Cosmos of Photography 2012”. His prize-winning series was titled “Sekai Suru Mono”, a simple translation into Japanese of the expression by Martin Heidegger “Die Welt weltet” in German. For Harada, it means that the world is not something simply at rest but an ongoing event. Harada realizes the moment we start to see something through a gap somewhere is also the moment that something we had been unable to perceive is beginning to insist upon its existence. At that moment, the ordinary can be transformed into a verbal form and at that time the world is seen as an ongoing event, dropping the normal understanding of the “world”. These are the moments he captures as images, which are the fundamentals of photography itself. Although his works are plain and orthodox, you do not find many artists like him. I hope you will breathe the air of the world projected in his works.
http://www.yosukeharada.com
Prof. Minoru Shimizu
showcase #2 is curated by Minoru Shimizu who is a repected art critic and Professor at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, regularly contributes essays and critical pieces to art magazines, museum catalogues, and books on photography. He has been a member of the jury of Canon New Cosmos of Photography Award since 2010.
Selected English Publications:
＊Daido Neither Nor, in PLATFORM (Taka Ishii Gallery, 2002)
＊Whence and Whereto of the color photography Eggleston, Meyerowitz and the new generation (Camera Austria, vol. 84, 2003)
＊The Art of Equivalence, in Wolfgang Tillmans truth study center (Taschen, 2005)
＊Shinjuku, in Daido Moriyama (Editorial RM, 2007)
＊The naked sameness, in Masayuki Yoshinaga SENTO (Tokyo Kirara sha, 2011)
CV-TAMOTSU KIDO
CV-HIROSHI TAKIZAWA
CV-IKUSHUN
CV-YOSUKE HARADA
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-WORKS-
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