kotoe ishii
Scarf 2005,
digital print, 70 x 53
cm, ed. 1/3
$440 (inc GST)
Winter
Breath 2006,
digital print, 70 x 53
cm, ed. 1/3
$440 (inc GST)
Once a year I return to Akita (Japan) to spend some time with my family for the New Year. During these short visits, I try to collect as many memories and scenes from home as I can. But every time I arrive home everything looks more dull and mundane than I imagined. With my two SLR cameras I end up taking only a few shots, and then put my cameras away in my suitcase for the rest of the time. As a result I started to use a disposable camera instead. It was easier to carry around, and the images did not have to be significant. I was fascinated by its strange effect, which was produced by its handiness and basic technology. The harsh flash and flat focus compressed the image and added strange colour combinations to the ordinary scenes.
Winter in Akita is incredibly white, and terribly quiet. I feel very lonely. I wander around by myself with the disposable camera in my pocket; it is an interface between myself and the surrounding winter. Loneliness and sentiment embrace me, even though I am at home. I keep pressing the shutter of the disposable camera to cut out the moment which doesn’t have to be kept; empty white landscapes, grey skies and myself. By taking these photos over and over again, the images start to get lost in a sublime state. Space and time are suspended in the air and the mundane and ordinary scenes become something unusual and precious.
