KAORI YOSHIHARAExhibition Content:
Why did I take such photographs? In most cases, I don’t know the answer.
I used to have a certain “something” when I was little. But it seems that this certain something has now moved far away from myself as an adult.
This certain something was so scary at that time. But now I release the camera shutter hoping to see it again: out of ghoulish curiosity. Reality comes closer to my eyes, and then passes by instantly. But reality won’t disappear even though I close my eyes.
Having its photo taken, it moves away from the photographer for a while, then it reminds her again of that certain something from her childhood.
“Release the shutter until it all disappears, then imagine it again,” she tells herself.
* The certain “something” is something the photographer saw when she was a small child, that is difficult to explain in words.
Comments:
Ms. Yoshihara’s exhibition “Yobimizu” is an experiment to bring emotions and memories -that exist in ordinary lives and are locked deep inside our subconscious- to the surface by taking photographs of photographs to stimulate them.
In order to go deeply into her inner self, the action of taking a photograph which is heading outside became “Yobimizu” and might be able to extract the inner conscious structure, which is an action like struggling.
What she extracted was maybe beyond her expectations because these photographs on photographs are concrete, fragments, and never emerge as a complete structure.
Without losing hope, she connected these fragments and released them into the space as an exhibition.
She adopted a pinup style display configuration projecting an image of a fragment on a large-size photo, which successfully interpenetrates images to mutually structuralize them.
As a result, did she find something from the embedded passing images and memories? Paradoxically, she might have discovered that she couldn’t find it.
Do the dark detailed flat surfaces used in the photographs repeatedly prove that the mission to go inside was prevented? Contrastingly, a parabolic antenna in the sky and a glittering red broadcasting tower look like symbols of a mind wanting to accept unknown signals from a distant person.
Conflicts between prevention and will are encapsulated as images in a space, which is highly evaluated.
The photographer had a sociological perspective exhibition called “Capsule Apartment” (Nikon Salon Juna21, 2007). This “Yobimizu” is positioned as the opposite side of it. The amplitude of these artistic perspectives proves the artist's rich talent.
KAORI YOSHIHARA profile
Born in Hyogo in 1980
Exhibition
2003: “Capsule Apartment” (PLACE M/Tokyo)
2007: Shinjuku Nikon Salon/Osaka Nikon Salon
2008-2009: 7th continuous exhibitions “Yoshihara Jukkei” (PLACE M/Tokyo)
2010: “Clear Turbulence” (TAP/Tokyo)
2010: “Capsule Apartment” photo book release commemorative exhibition
(TAP・PLACE M/Tokyo)
2011: “＃1” (TAP/ Tokyo)
and more
Book
2010: Photo book “Capsule Apartment” (TAP)
