Seen: S
Who: Tokyo Rumando
Where: Zen Foto Gallery, Roppongi
When: March 2 - 31, 2018 12-7pm (closed Sundays & Mondays)
This latest entry in Tokyo Rumando’s ongoing self-portraiture based work blends her perchance for performance and utter comfort with her body into a set of pictures that employs both elements into an interesting narrative. The engine of the story is less about nudity than it is her concepts of femininity, of Japan, of photography itself.
Rumando’s works in analog methods- the prints in this exhibition are actually photographs of photographs. The originals are shot on film and the prints were waxed and ironed to make them transparent. After placing these semi-transparencies atop a light table and re-shooting them with another film camera she returned to the darkroom- and printed the images one more time. The layering of her process creates pictures that reference the kinds of photos that provoked the world of Japanese photography so many years ago.
This exhibition utilizes some digital technology as well- a flat screen monitor plays a short disco/strip/dance show on a wall. A set of headphones are provided for visitors to fully partake in the experience.
A collection of this work, including many many images that are not seen int he show has been published as a new photobook: Sis available on shashasha.co here.