Home » Exhibitions » Mamoru Tsukada exhibition2009
About the Exhibition
Mamoru Tsukada
- 2009. 2. 20th（fri.） - 3. 21st（sat.）
- Tomio Koyama Gallery Kyoto
- opening reception 2.21. sat. 6:00 - 8:00pm
» Introduction:
Tsukada's works, where inspiration taken from encountering subjects and well- considered ideas meet, imply many words behind them. They reach to the unconsciousness of viewers through the "gap" between photography as the transparent medium and difference human beings create. He started his career as a photographer taking pictures of blind people. Who are blind build visual experience through senses other that sight and the image they create in their brain deviates from space and time in reality, because of their blindness. He continues exploring how the image functions, by making photographs that deviate from reality to arouse the unconsciousness.
"The act of creating is to seek, recognize, and attain the uniqueness of the subject. This pursuit is always haunted by a fear of failure associated with these empathies, similar to religious devotion or a love affair." (by the artist's statement for Cave Painting)
» Concept:
This exhibition introduces his photographs from 2003 to 2008.It is also including photographs which where shown at Tokyo Wonder Site in 2007.
» Artist Biography:
He was born in Nagano prefecture in 1962. After studying photography at Marymount University in LA, ICP in NY and work in Berlin for long term, he is currently based in Tokyo. This exhibition marks his fourth at the Tomio Koyama Gallery after "Specter" in 2006 and "The Fact That We Are Compelled To Look Out Beyond Our Sensible Representations" in 2003. Other major exhibition included "Seeing Blind" (Gallery La Camera / The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, Tokyo, 2001), "Site Graphics" (Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa, 2005), "Zone---Poetic Moment" (Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo, Tokyo, 2005), "A Few Things Which We Know About Photography" (Gallery Objective Correlative, Tokyo, 2005), "Landscape" (Luxe Gallery, New York, 2007), "Portrait Session" (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima / NAdiff, Tokyo, 2007), "ritual" (Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo, 2007), "Art and Ecology-Ecosophy in Practice [Shop & Think] seies vol.2" (Eye of Gyre, Tokyo, 2008), Mediations Biennale" (The National Museum in Poznan, Poland, 2008.)
Statement : Mamoru Tsukada
My photography deals with something invisible. It is something that can not be touched by the hand. Let's call it energy. Because of this energy, materials exist in reality. Consequently, time and space are created. Perhaps, we can call it something different. For instance, call it emotions. Emotions can be immanent energy to move our body. But as we know, emotions can be irrational, and therefore risky. But let's call this invisible substance both energy and emotions. Because we have it, a whole world moves in either good or bad ways.
Photography is a medium to copy all of the visible world. Sometimes, ghosts appear in it. Photography can capture the whole visible world, therefore, it can reveal the realm of invisible.
My photographs embody this invisible energy. How do I do it? It's not easy and it takes time for me to find the tools and methods. It requires ethics as well. For the series "SPECTER", I have used materials for the surface, such as masks and fabrics, to reveal darkness as invisible. Darkness, as well as light, is necessary for the structure of photography. In India, I made work ("CAVE PAINTING- SACRIFICE") with blood from a sacrificing goats ritual. This ritual offers the people's energy to their god by destroying what they value. By destroying the physical, they extract the energy. On another trip, I traveled near the North Pole. Several days before I arrived, I dreamt what I saw in reality. Strong north magnetic effect to my brain? Magnetic, dreams and the line of radars in the sky to catch invisible waves in the air. ("CAVE PAINTING-DRYWALL")
In my new series, "LOVE TRANSFORMER", I am experimenting towards this invisible energy, by using materials without substance. I quote the art historical works from the internet such as Velazquez, Courbet, Klee, and Duchamp and then collage these with my own photography, which exists/existed as substance in reality. I use the images from the internet, because their substance become uncertain and obscure. It is to try to reach time and space not here yet. We are alive and dying at the same time, and I think of this present moment surrounded by unknown and invisible, which is to be called future.
Feb. 20th 2009, Berlin
Contact information for press materials：
[ Tomio Koyama Gallery Kyoto / TKG Editions Kyoto ] Futaba Fujikawa TEL： +81-75-353-9994
*Please click Photos for more images.
CavePainting IV: Drywall, 2008
Light Jet print
180.0 x 180.0cm
©Mamoru Tsukada, 2008
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