えいぞう
October 28 & 29, 2017
Gallery AIRY, Kofu City, Japan
presented at the end of my residency at AIR Yamanashi
えいぞう-“映像”-“eizō”-”images”
えいぞう-“栄造”-“Eizō (Ota)
子どもの頃よく遊びに来ていた思い出いっぱいの街、甲府
アメリカと日本という二つの文化を経験する中で得た記憶、失ったもの
それらを再構築することで生まれる自分との対話をテーマにしたプロジェクトである
２ヶ月に渡るＡＩＲＹ滞在では、祖父（元甲府署長1985年、写真が趣味）と叔父（写真家）の作品や、祖父母に縁のあった方々の話を手がかりに、家族の変遷をたどりながら当時から現在に至る甲府の街の変化、目に見えるもの、見えないものをひっくるめて制作にあたった。
自分の中にある故国へのあこがれが、今は亡き祖父から叔父へとつながり、また自身にもつながっている。映像の作り手としての脈絡を再発見するにしたがって、それはどう変化していくか。アメリカと日本という二つの文化を経験する中で得た記憶、失ったもの、そしてそれらを再構築し直すことで自分との対話が繰り返された。
Kofu is a city full of my childhood memories. Through this project I hoped to create a dialogue around the idea of memory, loss, and a reconfiguration of identity based on bicultural experiences between the US and Japan.
My two month residency at AIR Yamanashi focused on the work of my late grandfather Eizo Ota and my late uncle Toru Ota. Eizo served as a Chief of Police in Kofu in 1985, implementing the first traffic technology before in the seventies. In his own time he was an avid self-taught photographer. His son Toru, having watched his father’s dark room procedures, went on as a photojournalist with a 30-year career before his untimely passing in 2016. Through personal archives and anecdotes from friends and family, I hoped to retrace my family’s steps and record both the visible and invisible changes in Kofu since their time.
The exhibition was named "Eizo" in homage of my grandfather, but also as a homonym with the word "image" in Japanese. In えいぞう, I explored how the longing for home and cultural identity within myself shift as I uncovered my family’s lineage of image-makers, from Eizo to Toru. The exhibition reflected upon how my approach has changed in the process of examining and reflecting on my personal heritage of image-making. Utilizing the site specificity of the former apartment-turned-studio, I pushed for the domesticity of the room by asking visitors to take off their shoes for slippers upon entering. Snacks and refreshments were provided for visitors to spend as much time as possible. Portfolios by both my grandfather and uncle were displayed to be freely perused over.
アメリカと日本という二つの文化を経験する中で得た記憶、失ったもの
それらを再構築することで生まれる自分との対話をテーマにしたプロジェクトである
２ヶ月に渡るＡＩＲＹ滞在では、祖父（元甲府署長1985年、写真が趣味）と叔父（写真家）の作品や、祖父母に縁のあった方々の話を手がかりに、家族の変遷をたどりながら当時から現在に至る甲府の街の変化、目に見えるもの、見えないものをひっくるめて制作にあたった。
自分の中にある故国へのあこがれが、今は亡き祖父から叔父へとつながり、また自身にもつながっている。映像の作り手としての脈絡を再発見するにしたがって、それはどう変化していくか。アメリカと日本という二つの文化を経験する中で得た記憶、失ったもの、そしてそれらを再構築し直すことで自分との対話が繰り返された。
Kofu is a city full of my childhood memories. Through this project I hoped to create a dialogue around the idea of memory, loss, and a reconfiguration of identity based on bicultural experiences between the US and Japan.
My two month residency at AIR Yamanashi focused on the work of my late grandfather Eizo Ota and my late uncle Toru Ota. Eizo served as a Chief of Police in Kofu in 1985, implementing the first traffic technology before in the seventies. In his own time he was an avid self-taught photographer. His son Toru, having watched his father’s dark room procedures, went on as a photojournalist with a 30-year career before his untimely passing in 2016. Through personal archives and anecdotes from friends and family, I hoped to retrace my family’s steps and record both the visible and invisible changes in Kofu since their time.
The exhibition was named "Eizo" in homage of my grandfather, but also as a homonym with the word "image" in Japanese. In えいぞう, I explored how the longing for home and cultural identity within myself shift as I uncovered my family’s lineage of image-makers, from Eizo to Toru. The exhibition reflected upon how my approach has changed in the process of examining and reflecting on my personal heritage of image-making. Utilizing the site specificity of the former apartment-turned-studio, I pushed for the domesticity of the room by asking visitors to take off their shoes for slippers upon entering. Snacks and refreshments were provided for visitors to spend as much time as possible. Portfolios by both my grandfather and uncle were displayed to be freely perused over.
Multimedia installation
Matte photographs, oil paintings, paper maché mask, custom shoji windows, videos on loop, carved wooden boat, handmade signs, family photos, photographs by Eizo Ota and Toru Ota, copies of Little Brown Mushroom's Conductors of the Moving World by Brad Zellar (2011)
マルチメディア個展
マット写真、油絵、ペーパーマッチェお面、障子、ビデオ、木材の船、手書きのサイン、太田家の写真、太田栄造写真、太田亨写真、栄造さんの写真について出版されたブラッド・ゼラー作の本 (2011)
Documentation by Ikumo Motosugi
Matte photographs, oil paintings, paper maché mask, custom shoji windows, videos on loop, carved wooden boat, handmade signs, family photos, photographs by Eizo Ota and Toru Ota, copies of Little Brown Mushroom's Conductors of the Moving World by Brad Zellar (2011)
マルチメディア個展
マット写真、油絵、ペーパーマッチェお面、障子、ビデオ、木材の船、手書きのサイン、太田家の写真、太田栄造写真、太田亨写真、栄造さんの写真について出版されたブラッド・ゼラー作の本 (2011)
Documentation by Ikumo Motosugi
49 matte photographs, shot on film, exhibition view
Photographs here
写真はこちらに
On piano: Eizo Ota's cowboy hat, Toru Ota's Buddha's village, Laos
ピアノの上：おじいちゃんの帽子, 太田亨ラオス写真集
This exhibition was created in memory of Eizo and Toru Ota.