Daisuke Yokota 

Untitled, (Site 09) 

Untitled, (Site 09)

About the artist

Daisuke Yokota photographs and samples images. He talks of an echo sounding between his work and the music of Aphex Twin: the same repetition, reverberation and change of pace are expressed in his images. In the Site series, he has digitally pursued what he started in his previous series, Back Yard. Here, instead of re-shooting an image up to 10 times, he makes an attempt at mixing multiple shots of the same place; no action is visible, but time is at work here, as if encapsulated in the image.

Interview

To understand the process followed for your Site series, it seems important to briefly turn back to your previous series, Backyard, and the creative process adopted for it. Can you tell us what it was?
Backyard consists of photographs I took in 2007 and 2008 and doctored with Photoshop. I then made inkjet prints, which I photographed in film with a 4.5 x 6 camera. I then developed the film strips in hot water at 90° C; I scanned the negatives and superimposed them in Photoshop. From each of these images, I made a new print, which I photographed again in film, which I developed in boiling water, then scanned and so on. I repeated this several times, depending on the picture.

Let’s now discuss Site. What are these places that look like they’re made of graphite and phosphorescent matter, seeming both to aspire to and reverberate the silence? How did they emerge on the surface of your image?
For Site, I used Photoshop to delete the details: I remove some reality from the image, which becomes more graphic. This manner of digitally tampering with reality leads me to wonder about what is reality in an image. Making a print of the image seemed essential to materialise this new, transformed reality.
One of the subjects in Site is the before/after, accounting for absence; it’s like photographing a shop that has been emptied. I photograph the concrete walls: I focus on their quality, the cold and hard concrete, and it becomes a symbol of the space.

Is the time you spend “making” the image decisive? What does it bring out in you, and in the picture?
The time I spend creating my works is essential. That’s when I think: I discover things during the creation process, more than when I am living my ordinary life. I spend a lot of time on each work - sometimes too much, and I spoil it – I need to find the right balance.

You recently took things further: after the immersion in a dark room that you had imposed upon yourself for Backyard, then your long digital work for Site, you are now working on the surface of the image itself, with acid, outdoors (or even before an audience, as in your recent performances). You have often talked about music, with particular reference to Aphex Twin’s work, his use of reverb and echo. Do you think photography is also a substance that can be distorted and morphed, like sound? Does it have the same fluidity?
Are your performances also part of the idea that the idea of a finished image should be challenged?
Photography is a changing thing: it is an imprint, a trace, but its nature is gradually defined by the steps it follows, its development, its printing. The artist decides upon the colour and density; he interprets. I do see a parallel between music and photography; in the same way that music is composed of sounds, and each sound of vibrations, photography is composed of grains, which are like vibrations. If you change the grain density, you modify the interpretation of images. Echo and reverb allows you to feel the space. Similarly, changing shades of grey and grain can change the quality of the light, and change the perception of spaces shown.
As for performances, they are a unique encounter with the public. I apply acid to the prints before an audience – perhaps their presence influences the result, which I can’t really control anyway; the process is paved with unexpected incidents, and the element of chance in the image is important.

Limited edition, numbered and signed. 

Selected shows and awards


Foam Talent from 2013, awarded the 2016 Foam Paul Huf Award.

Vertigo + Corpus, G/P + G3 Gallery, Japan, 2015
Site/Cloud, Stieglitz 19, Antwerpen, 2015
Foam, Amsterdam, 2014
Site/Cloud, G/P Gallery, Tokyo, 2013
AM Projects "All Colours Will Agree In The Dark", Noorder Light, Amsterdam, 2013
Actual Colour May Vary / AM Projects "Artist As Curator Projection Programme", Belfast Photo Festival, Ireland, 2013
MP1 Expanded Retina, G/P Gallery, Tokyo, 2012
Tokyo Frontline, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, 2012
The Photo / Books Hub Tokyo, Omotesando Hills, Tokyo, 2012
Unseen Photofair Unseen Collection, G/P Gallery, Amsterdam, 2012
AM Projects, East Wing, Amsterdam, 2012
1_Wall (2th Competition) Grand Prix Solo Exhibition, Gardian Garden, Tokyo, 2011
Yokohama Photo Market Ph4+ Photo Exhibition, Arts Commission Yokohama, Yokohama, 2011
Tokyo Frontline, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, 2011
The Photo / Books Hub Tokyo, Omotesando Hills, Tokyo, 2011
Cultivate#9 / Cultivate, Tokyo, 2011
Parapera Presents Future / New Zine Workshop(Lecturer), Cashi - Contemporary Art Shima, Tokyo, 2011
Yokohama Triennale 2011 Related Program "Bankart Life Ⅲ” ,Shinminatopia, Yokohama, 2011
1_Wall Exhibition (2th Competition) 2010, Gardian Garden, Tokyo, 2010
Tokyo Portfolio Review Vol.4, Tokyo Wondersite Hongo, Tokyo, 2010
Parapera Show, Cashi - Contemporary Art Shima, Tokyo, 2010
New Cosmos Of Photography Tokyo Exhibition 2008, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum Of Photography, Tokyo, 2008
Color Imaging Contest Tokyo Exhibition 2008, Spiral Garden, Tokyo, 2008


Awards

John Kobal Residency award
Foam Talent Call 2013, 2013
Mono Vol.1 (Gomma Magazine), The Eight Winners, 2012
1_Wall Exhibition(2th Competition), Grand Prix, 2011
New Cosmos Of Photography (31th Competition), Honorable Mention, 2010
Color Imaging Contest, Special Award Photograph Category, 2010

Selected publications

Abstracts «AM projecs» / Adad books, 2015
Linger «Teikai» / Akina books, 2014

Compilation Tokyo "Various Artist", Goliga and Self Publish, Be Happy, 2013
Common People "Various Artist",Bronze Age Edition 2013, 2013
Release In The Fall Of 2013
Site/Cloud, Artbeat Publishers, 2013
Untitled, Goliga Books, 2013
Vertigo, Newfave Books, 2013
Back Yard, Self Published, 2012
Site, Self Published, 2012
Nocturnes "AM Projects", Dienacht Publishing, 2012
Mono "Various Artist", Gomma Magazine, 2012
MP1/ Expanded Retina "Artist’s Book", Bamba Books, 2011
Water Side, Self Published, 2010

Featured links

Details

& order

Daisuke Yokota 
Untitled, (Site 09)

2011

Technical information

Pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta paper - limited edition, numbered and signed certificate.

Dimensions

29,6 x 40 cm , Edition of 50 250.00 €




By the same artist

Daisuke Yokota


By the same curator

HOLI MAY