Seen: KaoRi Through the Looking Glass: Photo-Mad Old Man A 2015.5.25 75th Birthday
Who: Nobuyoshi Araki
Where: Taka Ishii Gallery Photography / Film
When: May 25 - June 20, 2015 / 11:00 - 7pm / closed Sundays, Mondays, National Holidays
The gallery’s website notes that:
In the current series, Araki presents everyday scenes in mirrored images to express the sense that he now sees the world from the side of death, i.e. the other side of the mirror.
Use of the term “mirrored” gives a basic explanation but it isn’t the most accurate word to explain the work in this show. “Reversed” isn’t quite it, either. The images appear mirrored, but it’s the how in this case which makes them fit in with Araki’s current output over the past few years. Araki has been systematically “destroying” his photography through a variety of methods- he’s for years now been known to take a brush to his prints laden with paint or ink, and has upped the ante by:
-Scratching the emulsion of his negatives with a coin:Diary of a Photo-Mad Old Man Wides Shuppan 2011
-Tearing prints apart and reattaching them with cellophane tape: Shamanatsu 2011, Rat Hole Gallery 2011 / (Film Nostagia, 2011)
-Blackening out the right side of positive film frames with a marker: Love on the Left Eye , Taka Ishii Gallery, 2014 (opening party)
-Splicing polaroids in two and pairing different halves into a new image: Instant Film Kekkai , AM Gallery, 2014
-Splicing slide film frames in two and pairing different halves into a new image:Kirishin, Rat Hole Gallery 2014
In his phenomenal photobook from 2014, Ojo Shashu (order here), one can find a stunning selection of images made through lenses whose front elements he has peppered with holes from a power drill, or bluntly shattered by a hammer.
Araki is applying actions to his work which Photography would normally deem destructive- tearing, cutting, covering over, using damaged optics- and creating something new and successful. This is all quite fascinating considering destructive occurrences in his his own life; losing a beloved spouse, cancer, losing a beloved cat, losing sight in one eye, losing his condominium that was for decades the nucleus of his artistic universe. With each potentially debilitating life-event he’s been able to redirect his response into fuel for his creative output. This is the sign of a true artist.
The alteration of “traditional” photography in KaoRi Through the Looking Glass: Photo-Mad Old Man A 2015.5.25 75th Birthday (whew!), the “destruction”, if you will, is less elementally vicious than a pair of scissors but still rooted in physicality. Each print was made from a negative exposed upside-down in the darkroom. The result is “mirrored” images- the tangible act of placing the negative emulsion-side up in the enlarger places this series squarely in line with the continuation of his photographic-alteration from the past few years.
Naturally the effect is only proved by the reversed date-imprint in the bottom left corner or whenever text appears- but it is because it is so subtle that the experience is slightly disorientating, especially after taking the photographer’s own statement about the work into consideration:
“I’m now seeing things from the side of death. I’m looking at the world from the other side of the sky. That’s why it’s mirrored.”
– Nobuyoshi Araki
The show is predominately composed of two lines of prints taped directly to the walls. Keeping his words in mind while following the paths of the black and white pictures around the room, I couldn’t help but feel that it did feel like being offered a glimpse from the other side through a row of tiny monochrome one-way mirrors. If these pictures were able to express sound anything you could hear would be muffled like voices in another room, or the smothered sounds of life above, heard underwater.
Every single image in the show is in the exhibition’s photobook- a 5x7-ish 352 page publication- the paper stock is delicately thin- so thin that double-sided printing would have been difficult if not impossible. Art gallery priced at 12,000 yen.