eN arts

showcase #4 -constructs- curated by minoru shimizu

group exhibition

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→日本語

2015showcase#4DM

showcase  #4
–  constructs  –
curated  by  minoru  shimizu

2015.05.08 (Fri.) – 05.31 (Sun.)
open on Fri., Sat., & Sun. 12:00 – 18:00
opening reception : 05.31 (Sun.) 18:00 – 20:00
appointments are available on weekdays
special thanks to Canon

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eN arts is pleased to present the fourth edition of “showcase,” curated by Professor Minoru Shimizu, one of Japan’s most respected contemporary art critics.  “Showcase”,  a  group exhibition focused on photography,  is increasingly recognized a true showcase for up-and-coming photographers.  For  “showcase  #4”,  Professor Shimizu has selected two talented photographers from the perspective of  “Constructs”: Daisuke Nakashima and Yusaku Yamazaki.  Please  enjoy  the  exhibit.

Naomi Rowe | eN arts

PRESS RELEASE

→Click here to see previous “showcase” curated by minoru shimizu.

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showcase #4 – constructs-

In contast to “showcase #3″ presenting Japanese Portraits, the theme of “showcase #4″ is a photographic style set in contrast to the realism of photography.  As a matter of course, the dualisms — “pictorial or direct?” or “direct or realism” — were the presupposition, in addition, the efficacy of “straight” and “realism” as a competitiveness was believed.  “showcase #4″ is “constructs”.  The genre called “constructed photography”.

In this exhibition, all the photographs are fragments of the world, cut from a photographic frame, and only exhist as “constructed photography.”  One form of “constructed photography” shows “real” and “direct” while another “construct” represents “pictorial” and “fake”.  In other words, the action of photographing is the same as constructing the photograph, and this includes the act of crafting the manner in which to view the photograph.

Daisuke Nakashima (b. 1983) was awarded Semi Grand-Prix in “New Cosmos of Photography” in 2007, and Grand-Prix in “Visual Arts Photo Award” in 2008.  In the same year “each other” (Seigensha/Kyoto) was publised, marking his career debut in photography.  His capacity to construct an imperturbably “cool” composition, without undue focus, and to divide and re-connect the object, somehow is an innate ability.  His photographs are truly “constructed photography,” framing objects and selecting the light so that they are completed without any image processing.

Yusaku Yamazaki (b. 1984) was awarded an Honorable Mention Award (selecting judge: Minoru Shimizu) in “New Cosmos of Photography” in 2013, and in the same year was awarded an Encouraging Prize (selecting judge: Hiromi Tsuchida) in the “1_WALL Phography Competition,” and in 2014 he was awarded the Excellence Award for “New Cosmos of Photography.”  Now his photographs are drawing attention from both critics and the general public.  With his works, the basis of viewing a photograph is subverted by his advnced imaging processing techniques, techniques that few people notice.  As a result of these techniques, his works eliminate the obvious from the photograph itself and the act of viewing.

How two different approaches, “naturalism” and “technicialism” work to construct photographs that calmly shake the various premise of taking photographs and viewing them, with a touch of humor.

Minoru Shimizu

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Daisuke  Nakashima

 1DN-PH-15-001

statement by  Daisuke  Nakashima
For  me,  the  act  of  showing  images  that  I  have  photographed  to  others  is  the   act  to  make  the  viewer  feel  to  be  the  outside  of  the  image  that  I  framed,   making  them  aware  the  perspectives  of     “invisibleness”  and  “unable  to   capture  [on  film]”.     I  want  to  make  works,  in  contrast  to  the  act  of  simple  seeing,  that  can  sway   perception,  that  are  free  from  the  stereotyped  recognition,  and  that  released   from  categorization.
CV DAISUKE NAKASHIMA

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Yusaku  Yamazaki

 YY-PH-14-003-2

statement by Yusaku  Yamazaki
All  women  represented  here  do  not  exist.     They  are  imagined,  illusory  women  created  by  image  processing,  based  on  hundreds   of  thousands  of  photographs,  from  a  motif  of  snapshots  on  streets  of  people  passing   by.       I  incorporate  subtle  differences  in  all  the  images  that  appear  to  be  the  same  person,   and  I  do  not  represent  the  original  face.  I  named  these  women,  who  wander  from   existence  to  non-existence,  “Ai  Sato”,  the  name  that  combines  with  the  most   popular  last  name  and  first  name  among  the  Japanese  women  in  their  20s  and  30s.     We  handle  the  act  “to  recognize  the  faces”  unconsciously.     In  the  human  brain,  there   is  a  domain  that  only  recognizes  faces.     For  example,  “Is  this  person  safe  or  not?”  or   “Have  I  met  this  person?”,  And  we  instantly  judge  them.  I  tried  to  influence  the   domain  that  recognizes  faces  by  constructing  “a  face  which  dose  not  exist”  that   changes  in  succession.     At  the  same  time,  I  try  to  shake  perceptions  by  invoking  and  jolting  a  sense  of  déjà  vu.     A  lot  of  photographers  present  the  photos  of  passersby  on  the  street.  So  I  thought  to   make  a  device  so  that  we  feel  a  sense  of  incongruity  and  an  inability  to  land  anywhere   by  building  on  top  of  that  photographic  culture  and  method.     And  as  long  as  I  use  “the  face  of  another  person”,     I  can’t  get  away  from  the   question  of  privacy.     I  am  interested  in  what  it  means  to  represent  “the  face  that  belongs  to  nobody”,   especially  in  these  days  when  the  morals  of  exhibiting  photos  from  the  street  are  called   into  question.
CV YUSAKU YAMAZAKI

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-WORKS-

-INSTALLATION VIEW-