WORK OF MAMORU TSUKADA

(SELECTED)

2002-2012

“SEEING BLIND”

2002

10 portraits of blind people

125x85cm, black and white print on baryta paper

Artist note 1.

Do they live in darkness.

Do they know darkness.

Do we know darkness or light, or only see what is in between.

“THE FACT THAT WE ARE COMPELLED LOOK OUT BEYOND OUR SENSIBLE

REPRESENTATIONS”

2003

17 photographs

20X54cm, color print in white boxed frame

Artist note 2.

We are inevitably surrounded by multiple distant with people and things. And looking at

them is one way of measuring the distances. It is invisible in between, but filled with air,

which brings us sound, smell and sense of weight. However, because our sensible

representations have obvious limits with time and space, we can neither see what is beyond

surface nor hear sound far away, nor touch things, which doesn’t exist in the present.

Hence, our imagination emerges. We create imaginative dimension to the past and the

future, and to the objects we can’t see. It is indispensable for us who live in a limited

perceptual world.

The subjects of these photographs are people with and without sight. But in the

photographs, it is hard to tell who has sight and who doesn’t. I have intended to reveal the

uncertainty and isolation of optical sense. The images of photographs include the signals of

visual, tactile and auditory. They are to see where the limits of photography lay as an

instrument based on past visual incidents, and to show when imagination begins at this

present moment.

“IDENTICAL TWINS”

2003

4 photographs

120x120cm, color print, framed

Artist note 3.

Crossing Fiction and Reality

These are 4 photographs that I have needed to take in order to find out for myself. In case

of war, where I would stand, whether I would stand pro or con with my patriot.

Two men are identical twins. They dressed with the Japanese soldiers outfit from World

War Ⅱ. It was so clear after I have taken these images and experienced them, I would be

always against any wars.

“PORTRAITS”

2005

“SPECTER”

2006

5 photographs

100x100cm, archival digital print

Artist note 4.

“SPECTER” has been created using a humorous and physical way putting masks over a

camera lens. The reflection on glass in front of camera makes both inside and outside of the

object visible. Front is back and back is front in darkness. This is a deviation from optical

reality.

“CAVE PAITING”

2007

“Sacrifice”

“Dust”

“Idle”

180x180cm, archival digital print

Artist note 5.

The designation “CAVE PAINTING” references a hypothetical incident of an ancient cave

dweller’s discovery of a camera, and through this discovery, this person recognizes

objectivity for the very first time by looking at the world through its lens. Because of this,

the separation from nature has begun. It refers to the fact that by using stone implements,

humans found objectivity for the first time in their history.

On the contrary to the above, this image was created without focusing the lens. This is

done to view an object without having any perspective to it and references how a cave

dweller may have used his camera. By eliminating this perspective an individual can re-

examine their relationship with the object. While perspective creates distance, my

intention of not employing it is to search for empathies toward the unknown, those of which

are beyond our visual sensitivity.

The act of creating is to seek, recognize, and attain the uniqueness of the subject. This

pursuit is always haunted by a fear of failure associated with these empathies, similar to

religious devotion or a love affair. At the same time, this desire must leave from its limited

consciousness and move into uncertainty to be released. This is the destruction of the

“materiality” of the object, and also the self-destruction of consciousness. In this state of

antinomy, freedom from the chains of recognition, and the energy to go beyond the edge to

unknown, are brought forth.

In order to achieve this leap into the unknown, it is essential to have thorough knowledge

of your tools and subject. It is to incorporate the diverse emotions that emerge through this

ritual (the act of creating). There is also an element of humor in this because it is

impossible to visualize the unknown, and also the abuse of one’s body as if in meditation.

“PLATO’S LIGHT”

2011

9 photographs

“Can Love be Materialized?”

“Sensus Communis”

“Action Lever”

“Tears in Rain”

Archival digital print on aluminum sheet mounted on aluminum board

“PARRHESIA”

2012

8 photographs

“Human Stinks, all”

“Fear and Desire”

“False Sun and Red”

“A Hollow/Where parallels Meet”

“Demiurge/Capital and Material”

150x150cm, archival digital print on cotton paper mounted on plexi

Artist note 6.

We, humans, have our individual ego and right to be alive no matter how different we are

in races, religions, nationalities, and any social status. And this ego also creates fears and

desires to survive in our human society, which lead the individualism or mass politics,

power, as well as empathies in reality. But on the other hand, if we were to stand in a

position of looking over the whole planet earth, all humans are just the same. We are one

species. It is true that this position is still only imaginative in our realities, but we do can

have the ability to imagine it.

The works, “Human stinks, all” and “Fear and Desire” are based on the idea that we may

have all different desires and fears to survive, but therefore we all survive as the same. The

imaginative position can be created by this idea, different but the same. It is to aim peace

as the ultimate.

The title of the series, “Parrhesia” means the idea of pursuing truth in society. It is

philosophy, a way of living and actions as well, started the time of Socrates in Greek.

Cynics, who had derived from philosophy of Socrates, searched for their freedom and

happiness without relying on the existing power and politics. They were outsiders, having

lived in the margin of society.

You may think it is odd or untrustworthy to hear from an Eastern man referring to the

philosophy of Greek. But I would like to remind you that Socrates himself was or had

become an outsider in Athens because of his philosophy and actions. I believe that I, as an

outsider too, may turn it to advantage of looking through the Western society.

I create the images in art to embody “energy” to go beyond the differences that we have in

reality, e.g., good and bad, light and darkness, truth and false, death and life, and you and I.

The energy aspires to break “Idea”.

I believe art has its most meanings when the artists pursue going beyond our existing

systems and values, and ask ourselves what we do it for.

Biography

Born in Japan, 1962 and lives and works in Berlin since 2008

He studied photography at International Center of Photography in New York, 1991-92.

2002-2005, he studied art theory and history at Art Studium/ Kinki University, Tokyo. He

worked as a portrait photographer for Forbes, Business Week and Time magazine from

1995-2005.

In 2011, by the nuclear accident in Japan, he has organized an exhibition with 19 artists,

“Fukushima- Opening Doors with Compassion” in Cologne.

Since 2003, he has been at solo shows at Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo and numerous

international group shows in New York and Berlin. In 2010 and 2011, he has participated a

touring group show in Europe, “Islands Never Found” (curated by Lorand Hegyi), in

Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, The State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, and Musee

D’art Moderne, St, Etienne. He has also participated an International Biennale in Poznan,

2008.

The reviews of his work were written by many international critics and have appeared at

the numerous art magazine and publications, such as Frieze magazine, Mediation Biennale

in Poznan, and The Emerging Japanese 100 Artist.

He has published a photography book in 2002, which he took photographs of blind people,

“The Fact that We Are Compelled Look Out Beyond Our Sensible Representations”.