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Michiko TANAKA: Intermediate
Reviews
Written by Satoshi KOGANEZAWA   
Published: July 17 2009

“The unknown thing is never left as it is in ‘prove’.
Let me assume there is ‘something’. It is put there all alone without being known to anyone. Why does everyone not know about it (though they seem to glance at it)? The reason is precisely because it is unnamed. In other words, it is not accompanied by any words, which means that it does not belong to this world. Such a thing cannot be kept unchanged in ‘prove’. Why? It can be said that it is something like an instinct of ‘prove’ not to leave unknown things as they are. Therefore, ‘prove’ itself does not wonder about such a question. Anyway, (in ‘prove’) it is considered to be extremely ominous that there is something which has not been given its name in any way.” (“Japanese Novel”, Genichiro Takahashi (Bungeishunuju, 2007))

fig. 1 "Intermediate"; inkjet print, 728×1030mm, courtesy of Michiko Tanaka copy right(c) Michiko TANAKA

fig. 2 view from "Michiko Tanaka, solo exhibition" at Gallery Yamaguchi B1, courtesy of Michiko Tanaka

fig. 3 view from "Michiko Tanaka, solo exhibition" at Gallery Yamaguchi B1, courtesy of Michiko Tanaka

     For a while during my school days, I was interested in Genichiro Takahashi. Nevertheless, I was not interested in him as a novelist or commentator. In fact, his thinking drew my concern. What I learnt from him was how titles such as a novelist, commentator, or professor, limit the image of a person, namely, they represent a kind of violence caused by using words. I always keep the quotation above in my mind when I write something.

     Writing something means clarifying the difference between written things and unwritten things, and ranking them. The former does not mean matters which should be written and the latter does not refer to matters which should not be written. We often make the mistake of not writing things which should be written and, conversely, writing things which should not be written. In fact, such a value judgment regarding a selection of subjects to be written can be said to be extremely arbitrary. And indeed, there is an option not to write anything, creating a distance through a violent act of words consciously, but I still continue to type in this way since I have been content with the convenience of using words to express something, or rather, since I cannot convey something to others without using words.

     Therefore, I always have a strong wish for my articles to be read critically by audiences (a natural feeling for all writers) but I always want them to understand what I intended in my writing. Why? The reason is that such a critical perspective of readers is a means of relieving words of their violent nature, and all writings would become the writer’s propaganda unless there was such a critical aspect on the audience’s side. In other words, you must not necessarily believe the contents of this article after reading it through. Words always come after “a thing accompanied by no words” as if they have existed from the beginning.

     Then, how can we replace “a thing accompanied by no words” with words while keeping its unknown nature? It is inevitable that critics in the field of art or art history, who often need to verbalize visual matters, will pursue the above question.

     The reason I have referred to the matters of words before writing an article about Michiko Tanaka’s solo exhibition entitled “Intermediate” (1st basement floor, Gallery Yamaguchi, 15/Jun/2009-20/Jun/2009) is that Tanaka’s photographs can be described, exactly, as “things accompanied by no words”, and therefore I was at a loss as to what words to use to describe her works.

     In each of seven photos displayed in this exhibition, Tanaka took a picture of a part of building. Using some means such as the emergency stairs of nearby buildings, she shot photos of the roofs and sides of neighboring buildings from the front or obliquely upward, using a digital camera. Therefore, her photos give us a flat image since the subjects are visually in focus on all sides. They are not like miniature photos of urban scenery taken from the upper floors of buildings. Using a camera with a 50mm lens, Takana succeeded in taking photos in which there is a well-balanced distance between her and the subjects.

     All of the pictures shown in this exhibition were taken in the evening on cloudy days. We find a contrast between light and shade, which was created by utilizing a relatively long exposure time in conjunction with the feeble sunlight of overcast days, and this gives us a flat image. As Tanaka mentioned in a statement, “In the area slightly above this world, in which we have our daily lives, all things live together, getting sunlight equally. I found an intermediate space between the human area and the air”, the title of this solo exhibition, “Intermediate”, means not only the intermediate area in space but also that in time and weather. The evening is not considered to be included in specific time zones, such as the morning, daytime and night, but to exist between day and night. Cloudiness is not classified as either sunshine or rain. All such intermediate factors make me feel anxious and uncomfortable as a result.

     The buildings in her pictures must have their own names which are publicly used and, indeed, I recognize them to be buildings, but, although the photographs have an attraction that makes me stare at them, I can only confess the “difficulty” in describing them since this anxiety, ultimately, deprives me of a means of describing them by using words. A photo is one of the media which can present unknown things, namely, “things accompanied by no words” to us, without naming them. Tanaka’s pictures make us recognize such characteristics of photos. Therefore, her photographs can only be called “pictures”. They are not something like documentaries, art works, everyday matters or stories, and thus they create an intense impression. Even the “difficulty” in describing them does not mean the defeat of words by the visual sense, as long as such a difficulty can be expressed by using words. I expect Tanaka to succeed in conveying a certain affluence and nuance included only in unnamed things through this solo exhibition. Michiko Tanaka was born in 1985. Currently, she is enrolled in her second year of a master’s degree program in a design major including a photography course at the Graduate School of Art and Design, Musashino Art University. This is her first solo exhibition.
(Translated by Nozomi Nakayama)


Related Exhibition

"Michiko TANAKA: Intermediate"
15/Jun/2009 - 20/Jun/2009
Venue: Gallery Yamaguchi

Last Updated on July 05 2010
 

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