佐藤時啓氏 展覧会「Camera Lucida」
Camera Lucida
It is a wonderful thingwhen you become hooked after seeing an artist’s work for the first time. Thiswas the case years ago when I saw Tokihiro Sato’s work for the first time in theTokyo Photographic Art Museum, together with my daughter Lieve in Japan. Iwrote about this wonderful encounter to mark the first retrospective exhibitionof Tokihiro’s work in our gallery. I explained how I was completely fascinatedby what I saw and experienced without even knowing the background story. Thework grabbed me by the throat, without needing any extra explanation.
There is now new work hangingin the gallery and the same thing has happened again, but in a different way. Onceagain, the photos are like sculptures. It is not that they record something directlyperceivable, but that a sculptor has created something using the medium ofphotography.
Photography provides Tokihiro, who initially trained as a sculptor, with a medium in which the process of making, ‘sculpting’, is embedded in the end result. Once again, you walk past the artwork that is so charming in its beauty that it sucks you in. Upon closer examination you see that many experiences have been carefully incorporated into ‘one image’. Now, the view through the branches of a cherry tree is projected onto the ground covered in fallen petals.
In Japan ‘Sakura’,the brief period in which the cherry tree blossoms, is an almost religiousexperience and not only marks the start of the summer but is also seen as a synonymfor the ephemerality and transience of life. For each photo, Tokihiro has carefullychosen the time of falling blossom petals and the place where he stands with aview through the flowering trees. As such, he has ‘composed’ the images, andthus created works that are completely overwhelming.
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30 June until 8 September 2019
PIET HEIN EEK
Halvemaanstraat 30
5651 BP Eindhoven
