Exhibition Title (period): unforgettable landscape#1 (pigeon loft) (2012.08.29 - 09.02)
Exhibitor: Natsumi Sakamoto
Participants (title omitted):
Hiroko Murata, Satoshi Ikeda, Catalina Tuca, Jeremy Bakker, Sam Stocker, friends of the artist (approx.20 people)
Moderator: Utako Shindo
Documentation: Yuri Kabata
<Explanation from the artist>
By developing subject matter gained through the use of “interview” techniques, I have painted the “memory” of my friend. For this exhibition, taking the story of a pigeon loft belonging to an uncle of a friend who had passed away, I have shown two types of work; the first are paintings which took shape in the imagination after the interview, and the second are paintings based on images found by searching the internet and other sources after reducing the story to the keyword of “pigeon loft”. The images which expanded directly after hearing the story are the large-sized paintings. By clearly dividing the work in terms of those derived from small objects and the size of the work, it is possible to differentiate between these two methods.
By developing subject matter gained through the use of “interview” techniques, I have painted the “memory” of my friend. For this exhibition, taking the story of a pigeon loft belonging to an uncle of a friend who had passed away, I have shown two types of work; the first are paintings which took shape in the imagination after the interview, and the second are paintings based on images found by searching the internet and other sources after reducing the story to the keyword of “pigeon loft”. The images which expanded directly after hearing the story are the large-sized paintings. By clearly dividing the work in terms of those derived from small objects and the size of the work, it is possible to differentiate between these two methods.
In my practice to
date, I have used original landscapes derived from myself and inner memories as
my subject. But in this exhibition, the “external” method of interview was used
for the first time.
Having undertaken
video, performance, and mediums other than painting for the past few years, it
has been some time since I last worked in the medium of painting. So I would
like to hear your thoughts distinctly related to the paintings.
<Exchange of Opinions>
Sam: You talk of the
memory of buildings (pigeon loft), but is it the memory of the building itself,
or rather the memories which concern the building?
Sakamoto: The
landscape which had stayed in the memory of the person who became my subject
had taken the form of a building. (in the painting, I painted the memory I held
of the “building” at the same time...)
In order to depict a
place which I had never been to, I needed external information and materials.
And so, I searched the internet, but I have drawn concretely from images I
found of spy pigeons during wartime, and pigeon lofts located in Taiwan.
Utako: Why the
translation “landscape” in the title?
Sakamoto: An
interview is nothing more than the act of re-experiencing the memories of the
interviewee. Memories are the lining of peoples’ experiences, and they include
the sights or “landscapes” which we have presumably seen.
In the past, I have
made video performance works in which I followed someone, and what interested me
was the pursuit of someone, an “other”.
Jeremy: Why did you
only use painting here when in the past you have used other media?
Sakamoto: There were
constraints in the preparation period, but on this occasion what I was seeking
was to make a single motif (pigeon loft) exist from a plurality of
perspectives, and so painting seemed to be the most appropriate.
Katarina: I understand
from your image that there is the duality of both that which is drawn from
imagination, and that drawn directly from a source, but is this difference made
any easier by altering the size in a physical way?
Utako: Or is it that
perhaps you wanted to mix images which depict different worlds?
Sakamoto: I felt that
I was making links between personal and internal memories and the memories of
someone else. I have an interest in the awareness or image of the word “world”.
The reason why people who have not paid visits to most of the landscapes of the
world are still able to have an image of the “world” is through external
information provided by others, which is thus magnified to create an internal “world”
image.
Jeremy: In relation
to a painting where dreams and reality are mixed, it seems a shame not to
incorporate the process of sound? I feel there is a potential to use it in this
work.
Sakamoto: I didn’t
think about using it in this work, but in my experience I have felt there is a
tendency in the genre of painting to exclude sound. However, I had precluded
the use of sound from the start of this exhibition.
Utako: At present,
sound is a secondary element?
Sakamoto: Yes, at
present.
Friend of the artist:
I even dramatize my own memory (when producing work), but is this different
when dramatizing the memory of someone else?
Sakamoto: There is no
difference on this point. In either case, I am making work with the premise
that it will be shown to someone else and will become the experience of someone
else, and so I try to exclude feelings at the time of production. The images
and colours are different on a superficial level, but the same method of
production applies in both.
Utako: Did you use
the memory of the other in order to empathize with them?
Sakamoto: Yes.
Utako: What if the
work was made because the creator actually did empathize with the speaker
beforehand? Or perhaps, for the audience there is no difference between the
internal memories of the creator and the memories of the other.
Actually, the
interview was conducted with someone with whom I did empathize, but the
direction I sought in the work was to gain anonymity which couldn’t otherwise
be achieved if it had been created based on internal memories. I believe this
anonymity which includes those with whom the creator cannot empathize will
become prominent by conducting a countless number of interviews.
Speaker: I don’t know
whether “empathy” can be seen to be reflected concretely in the interview I
took part in, but the “discovery” that this work was based on that conversation
is deeply moving.
Utako: Does it feel
like the work hasn’t come from your own words?
Speaker: Yes, it
does.
Editors Comment
Rather than
investigating deeply into the exhibition and the ways it was produced, this critique
session came to give an overview of the artist’s working practice. There were
few comments about the paintings themselves which the artist had anticipated, but
then from the outset there were few painters who joined the session. I feel
there would have been a deeper discussion if the painters who did participate
in the session had made more vital comments.
