I went to Kyobashi. There is no traffic as usual because of the bad cold going around. It’s supposed to be the coldest season, but it’s strangely warm and uncomfortable.
I saw the exhibition of Yoko Sato at Gallery Hinoki. In the past few years, Sato’s exhibition at this venue has always been composed of a combination of photography and painting. Especially this time, I enjoyed it even more because the photographs were in black and white.
Although many of Satoh’s photographs are plain and free of embellishment, they are beautiful and full of a strong will that reaches to the core. I hope to publish a collection of his works in ‘asterisk books’ someday. On the other hand, in his paintings, each different part or element, which had been a characteristic of his works, overlaps each other like a layer, is collected as a unified image, and the tendency to converge is lost. Space is established as a free space in which we enjoy the fact that we happen to be next to each other rather than melting together.
I imagine that it would be even more delightful to realize a space in which the elements that harmonize with each other and the elements that come into contact with each other, with the faces of others who are separated from each other, would develop in one place.
One of the things that I have been thinking about recently about my work is the public nature of photography, which means that the things captured and expressed in my work are interdependent and interconnected, and in this movement, I can create new values. I’m looking forward to seeing how his next work develops.