Kohey Kanno

-Invisible Memories-

Concept

Invisible Memories consists of images from two places—New York City, until recently my home, and Kawamata, Fukushima, where my grandmother has lived all her life.I juxtaposed scenes from the two locations with reference to both personal history and larger historical events, in particular the lingering uncertainty following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. As the memory of that event fades, so do my memories of New York. Invisible Memories examines the parallels and differences between those forms of memory and probes their meaning on both a personal and a social level.
 
 Invisible Memories carries this theme forward in an even more radical way. Images from New York and Kawamata are overlaid, creating a deeper sense of mystery and uncertainty within the individual pictures rather than simply between them. Each image appears twice combined with a different photograph. With repetition, some parts of the image are clarified while others that were previously visible can become obscured, inviting closer examination. Repetition can also summon a sense of deja vu—the uncanny feeling that the viewer has been to this place and seen this scene before. The figures and images may take on a strange familiarity that belies their varied origins and presentation.

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Profile

1982 Born

2004 Graduated from The Nihon University College of Art

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Exhibition

2015 New Japanese Photography / Doomed Gallery, London
2013 Lose/You / The Jane Hotel, NY
2013 Organix:Contemporary Art from the USA, Curated by Diego Cortez, Luciano Benetton Collection / Venice, Italy
2013 Space Cadet Actual Exhibition #2 / Turner Gallery, Tokyo
2012 The Wild & The Innocent / Clic Gallery, NY
2012 Reverberation / Bohemian, NY
2011 We Are One 2nd / Camel Art Space, NY
2011 We are One / Gallery 61, NY
2011 Expressions in Photography / Grace Institute, NY
2010 Self Published, Be Happy Exhibition/Library / Photomonth Krakow, Poland
2010 Salon Show / The Greenpoint Gallery
2006 Paper Life / Sundries, Tokyo
2006 SHISEDO from designers / Shiseido shiodome, Tokyo
2005 SHISEDO from designers / Shiseido shiodome, Tokyo

Publications
2015 JP_EN ISSUE.2
2014 12 IMAGES FOR 2015(Calendar)
2012 Unseen/Tsunami
2011 Honeymoon
2010 The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
2008 Tabinotameni

Website

www.koheykanno.com

Comment

Kohey Kanno’s ‘Invisible Memories’ held my attention, keeping me curious with its intermingling of imagery from his recent home in New York, with his grandmother’s home of Kawamata, Fukushima.  These dense and fragmentary images act as symbols of the ways in which our memories are continually recontextualized as we accumulate new experiences.  I read once that when we recall a memory, it is repositioned in our neural network – it becomes a new memory, one that is reanimated by the continually additive way in which our minds and our imaginations process the unfolding of our lives. 

Charlotte Cotton | Independent curator of and writer about photography

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Since I came across Kohey Kanno’s zines years ago I connected with the queerness of his work.

I enjoyed the beauty and desires that his photographs emanated, mixing intimate portraits with symbolic images. I was charmed by his world suspended between Japan and the US and admired the experimental nature of some of his work.

In ‘Invisible Memories’ Kanno moves further into the sublime and a dream-like state layering photos of his past life in NYC and of the place where some of his family is from, to create quite a moving effect.  

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Bruno Ceschel | Self Publish Be Happy

Sayuri Ichida

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-deja vu-

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​Concept

In my work I look for beauty in scenes that evoke a sense of nostalgia and timelessness, two elements that I believe are fundamental to all photography.

Earlier this year I went on a day trip to a town in Upstate New York. While walking I saw a big house that reminded me of a doll house I used to play with when I was a small child in Japan. Much like when I was a child, I imagined the lives of people passing through this house, but now as an adult I also imagined all of the past and future lives that would play out in it through time. I experienced a strong sense of deja vu that seemed to stretch from my own present moment towards both my past and my future.

That experience inspired me to shoot this series. Following my trip to Upstate New York, I used Google Maps to plan trips to other small towns near New York City where I thought I would find similar houses. All of the photographs in the series were taken over several trips. I only used my camera to capture those houses that I felt I had seen before and that invoked in me a strong feeling of deja vu. 

Profile

1985 Born in Fukuoka Japan

2006 Graduated from Tokyo Visual Arts 

2012 Moved to New York

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Home Page

www.sayuriichida.com

Comment

Sayuri Ichida’s images of suburban houses with porches and brick chimneys replicate an American aesthetic of perfect small town idealism. Shot from an outsider’s perspective, the work evokes a kind of ‘Nostalgia for the Present’, a memory of something that never happened and doesn’t exist outside of longing.

Ichida’s use of a warm filter and fixed composition add to the picture-postcard veneer, but visible electricity and phone cables, and side angle shots taken through bushes, elicit an eerie feeling of surveillance and pose questions of what lies beneath the surface of the facade. 

Learning that she found these destinations on Google Maps, and took day trips to photograph the houses that elicited a feeling of deja vu in her, emphasises her displacement and adds another layer of meaning and interest to the work. 

Melissa Dewitt | HOTSHOE

This work, "Climb on the contour line", is a derivative of some materials, used under Creative Commons (CC) license.

"Climb on the contour line" is licensed under CC BY-SA by Takeshi MITA.