Japanese aesthetics explored in photographic exhibition

Home

Sections

Entertainment

Written by Administrator

Wednesday, 11 July 2007

A collection of digital photographs from Kaori Yuzawa will be on display at the Ard Bia Gallery from Wednesday 18 July.

'After the Fog' provides a unique insight into how key concepts in traditional Japanese Aesthetics can be found in the work of a young contemporary photographer.

In Japan there is an intense preoccupation with the concept of 'Nihonjinron': the nature of the Japanese person or character. This concept differs substantially from western ideas relating to the individual psychological profile of a character, and instead emphasizes an individual's position in a much broader cultural and historical time-span.

Kaori's images invest each subject with a timeless mythical signification; she reaches beyond the specifics of individual stories. Rather than demystify her subjects with a narrative, she creates a personal mythology for them, constructing a scene in which their 'truth' is ultimately impenetrable and irreducible and therefore rendered poetic.

Kaori's project seems close to what in Greek thought is called Anagnorisis, the recognition of someone not only as a person but also in terms of what they stand for in their world. Her images are intentionally enigmatic, not in the Western sense suggesting psychological mystery, but rather in the sense of creating an abstracted personal mythology for each character: an ideogram of their lives.

Commenting on the exhibition, Kaori Yuzawa said, "I am inspired by old Japanese myths. I try to conjure up scenes from Japanese mythology in the lives of real characters in contemporary Japanese society."

For further information, contact the gallery on 091-516630 or log onto www.ardbia.com.

Comments (0) »