MEM presents an exhibition of Ken Kitano’s early photographic series "Flow and Fusion" at UP FIELD GALLERY on the occasion of the publishing of his monograph from the same series. "Flow and Fusion" is the first milestone for the artist who later produced a well-known portrait series "our face". The series was shot from 1989 to the mid 1990s, when Japan went through several historical events; the collapse of the Bubble Economy, the South Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake and the sarin terrorism attack.
About the series ‘our face’, and ‘one day’
In making the series “our face”, Kitano has traveled around Japan visiting and taking portraits in communities, festivals, schools, places of work and religious sites. This series is characterized by a technique in which each photo portrait has been evenly printed, with the negatives of the subject belonging to a particular group, on top of each other. The single photograph presents not only several tens of faces overlapped densely, but also a certain peculiarity of the group that the people belong to. The outlines appear either melted or blurred, expressing time and light, creating a uniqueness to the particular group. Since starting the project in Japan in 1999, Kitano has visited 59 sites across the country. Since 2008 he has been working on images of people across Asia; this process should take three to four years to complete. After Asia, he plans to spend a few years working on an American Continent series. On completion, he will proceed to Eurasia and Africa.
In the landscape photograph series “one day” which started in 2007, Kitano has tried to capture the time spent in specific locations such as Mabuni cave (Battlefield of World War II) Okinawa, Dotonbori, Osaka, a classroom at Sobudai high school, Kanagawa, the released point of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, in front of Shinjuku Station, Tokyo, National Sanatorium Nagashima-Aiseien, Okayama (Nagashima, Isolated island of Medical center of Hansen's disease), and the Tower of Tsutenkaku, Osaka. Each image was taken by long exposure during the day from sunrise to sunset. Today, globalization makes it possible to easily access any place, exchange information quickly and efficiently, and choose from a diverse range of goods. In a contrasting situation, it deprives us of a sense of co-existing and diminishes the opportunity to imagine escaping through passages of time and space, away from our own locale. Much like the portrait series “our face”, Kitano wishes that the series “one day” will present a direction for viewers to imagine the world.
Biography of Ken Kitano
Ken Kitano was born in 1968 in Tokyo, where he continues to work. He attended Nihon University's College of Industrial Technology and graduated in 1991. His portrait series ‘our face’ attracted attention to his work and he has been included in various group shows including “Photography Today 3" (The National Museum of Art, Tokyo) in 2006, and “MATRIX OF PHOTOGRAPHY 2008 TOWARDS A GAME OF PHOTOGRAPHY” (Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa) in 2008. He was awarded the Society of Photography Award 2004 as well as the Newcomer's Award from the Photographic Society of Japan 2007. His work is found in public collections internationally including The National Museum of Art, Tokyo and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna. Artist’s official Website : http://www.ourface.com/
related event 1
talk session between Ken Kitano x Tasuo Fukushima(critic) / date : Mar 6(Sat) 4pm- / venue : UP FIELD GALLERY (admission free) *party after the talk session
related event 2
Ken Kitano x Satoshi Machiguchi (Art director/match and Company,inc.) x Hisako Motoo (curator,editor/eyesencia) / date : Mar 12 (Fri) 18:30-(admission free) / venue : NADiff a/p/a/r/t , 1F 1-18-4 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, URL : http://www.nadiff.com/
* The text provided by MEM.