MIYAKO YOSHINAGA is pleased to present a special reopening exhibition featuring the photo installation “Correspondence” by New York-based artist Yojiro Imasaka (b. 1983, Hiroshima). This project sheds light on the artist’s introspective work created during the last three months of the lockdown.
When New York City was ordered to shut down, Imasaka was in the process of readying large-scale photographs for art fairs. As all activities froze, he went back to basics, reviewing negatives from his previous shooting trip to Japan. Over the next few weeks, Imasaka made more than 50 small gelatin silver prints in his darkroom, a process he could manage without a laboratory or assistant.
“Correspondence” is a contemplation based on bird’s-eye-views of a deep mountain forest in Northern Japan, all shot on the same spot. A spectrum of blue and green shades, like a paintbrush for a painter, expresses his emotional state corresponding nature’s untamed and transient appearance. Sometimes calm, sometimes fierce, the artist spiritually identifies himself with a multifaceted landscape.
The artist will donate a portion of the proceeds to Doctor Without Borders for their Covid-19 medical efforts.
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Slide Show of 54 correspondence prints
A benefit for Covid-19 Medical WorkersNavigate with an arrow and click each image for details.
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Illuminating Earth 148
master image vs the correspondence series"Illuminating Earth 148 B" is the master image developed from negative number 148 which Imasaka selected for exhibitions/art fairs. In this exhibition, this work – toned gelatin silver print, 48 x 60 in. /122 x 152 cm – faces the opposite wall covered with 36 Correspondence prints created from other negatives of the same subject.
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Review
By Loring Knoblauch for Collector Daily, published July 22, 2020"Variant frames capture the small transformations that occur as stormy winds blow through the greenery, waving the grasses and shaking the tree branches. Seen in the grid display here, the variants offer small moments of change and soft blur, the surfaces in a constant state of almost imperceptible motion. By choosing to use multiple images instead of just one, Imasaka heightens the sense of shifting impermanence, the forest incrementally adapting and changing before our eyes, if we are willing to slow down and look closely."
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Illuminating Earth 144 C27, June 2, 2020
Sometimes dark, sometimes bright, the different shades of blue and green in this series of gelatin silver prints express my emotional swings in these days of an unknown future. The lockdown has caused me to look at numerous negatives again and print and tone them in the darkroom. Rather than capture phenomena happening outside, they are my correspondence with the sacred scenery in my distant homeland.
YOJIRO IMASAKA
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PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST
FILM BY AMÉLINA LIMOUSIN (2018)Enjoy this short interview film in which Yojiro Imasaka talks about his meditative approach to the image-making process.
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Available Work
These benefit prints are 35 % less expensive than other works of the same technique and size by the artist. -
Other Works by Yojiro Imasaka
Illuminating Earth (2019 - ongoing)"Illuminating Earth" is the latest series Imasaka has been developing resulting from a long shooting trip in Japan in summer 2019. From a forest in the Shirakami Mountains in the north to a subtropical rainforest on the remote island of Yakushima in the south, Imasaka continues to envision landscapes before and after civilization. Some of these works were first shown at last year's art fairs. Please inquire about other available sizes.
