Seeing the light
By Jules Quartly
Sato Tokihiro's landscape photographs can just as easily be described as mindscapes. They have an emotional appeal disconnected from the subject matter and are hard to pin down.
For instance, a stationary bulldozer fills the frame, with nothing but tracks in the foreground and distant city lights in the background.
It's an unremarkable subject, but is invested with meaning by Tokihiro's signature squiggles that look a little like fairy lights.
It seems as if there is a ghostly presence sitting in the bulldozer cockpit, driving the tracks forward, making the blade move up and down. It creates a dynamic picture on which to reflect and derive meaning.
The Japanese photographer has developed a unique approach to black-and-white photography that involves taking long exposure shots with an 8 x 10 inch camera, fitted with a darkening filter.
He then moves through the scene with a flashlight or mirror, creating patterns of energy. The artist and his movements are not detected because of the long exposure, leaving just the subject and points of light.
Other large-format photos in the Photo-Respiration series featured at the Dandeli Art Space exhibition include coastal, city and snowy forest scenes, mostly taken in Japan and South Korea, all of which are adorned with impressionistic light.
It's a neat trick that has earned the former sculptor kudos in the international art world, with exhibitions around the world.
"With exposure times over an hour, any traces of the human element and the natural world in motion become stillness and emptiness," Tokihiro says of his work. "People don't become blurs, they simply un-become."
Another way of looking at them is from the point-of-view of breath and light, hence the title, Photo-Respiration, which links breathing during physical exercise with arcs of light, according to the artist.
Sept 13-Nov 13
Dandeli Art Space, Image Base Beijing, Building 1, 3 Guangqu Lu, Chaoyang district, Beijing
6770-8966
www.dandeliarts.com.
Source: China Daily 09/11/2009 page20
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-09/11/content_8679777.htm
