Masao Yamamoto
'Nakazora'
December 1, 2007 - January 5, 2008
Opening reception: Saturday, December 1, 5 pm
AMSTERDAM, October 3, 2007 – Galerie Gabriel Rolt is proud to present a site specific installation of numerous small photographs by Masao Yamamoto (Gamagori, Japan, 1957) and a selection of framed individual works that he recently made.
The installations of Masao Yamamoto with photographs of birds, trees, mountains, skies and nudes, can be seen as visual haikus. On the gallery wall he carefully places numerous unframed photographs varying in sizes from quarter-plate to postcard, almost all in black and white. Deliberately spaced with a definite rhythm, they create a poem that every viewer will read differently. Some of the works are of a size so small that it is almost impossible to see what the subject is. By encouraging the audience to step in closer, Yamamoto imparts a sense of what it is like to be attentive, to truly see. Every photo appears to be unique. The surfaces are sometimes enriched with subtle drawings or stains and the edges sometimes trimmed with the corners torn off as if one is peeking at someone’s treasured old photo album.
“When looking at my installation, I would like the viewer not to try to understand. Rather, as a landscape, please just view or take a look at it. Haiku Moment is a translation of the moment when a haiku takes shape, and it is probably a moment that comes to you suddenly, striking your feelings. Likewise, my installation often reveals its story in front of my eyes at the last minute before the de-installation”, says Masao Yamamoto.
Yamamoto combines his virtuosity as a photographer with the fresh eye of a child who wonders about the miracles of life and death. His photographs are based on traditional Japanese culture that even today plays an important role in Japanese society, and form a counterbalance against the raw and decadent side of Japanese culture as portrayed in the works of artists like Araki.
In the early 90's Yamamoto started presenting installation-like series of works under the title of "A box of Ku," and in 1998 he published his first book with the same title.
Yamamoto edited his second book titled "Nakazora", meaning ‘’the space between sky and earth, or emptiness’’. Oriented more to the installation, it takes the form of "makimono" (scroll) and has consequently no such things as pages. With no dominant story prepared in pages the viewers are to follow fragments of plural stories paralleling and sometimes interlacing with each other.
Yamamoto’s most recent work consists of photographs that he presents framed as individuals pieces. “Up to now I have been working in the form of installation. What overflows from one photograph would flow into the next piece, and in two's and threes, the groups would create a combined effect, like the layered notes of an orchestra. But recently my thoughts are more focused on the individual incident, the urge to dwell deeper into each element is rising slowly. A landscape or an incident around me is cut out into a square piece of photograph. What that square piece will inspire in you... perhaps it is something that already exists inside of you”.
Apart from numerous solo and group shows at museums and galleries in Tokyo, Yamamoto exhibits at a.o. Robert Klein (Boston), Jackson Fine Art (Atlanta) and Hackelbury (London). This year he participated in Quizaine Photographique, Nantaise, France and he had solo exhibitions in a.o. Milan, Portland, Camel (U.S.A.) and in Paris at Galerie Camera Obscura.
Works are made in an edition of 40 or 20, depending on the series. Each print is hand finished and unique: works within each edition vary slightly.
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