Internationally-known photographer Ishiuchi Miyako, who captures in film the memories and time that dwell in inanimate objects, chose to collaborate with the young photographer Yuhki Touyama for this exhibition. The works of these two artists overlap in a single exhibition space under the theme “the death of a women close to me.”
Ishiuchi’s Mother’s, a series of photographs of the belongings of her mother, who died in 2002, has been shown around the world. Although the work deals with a personal theme, its repeated exhibition has brought it before the eyes of many people, transforming its motif from “my mother,” to (anyone’s) “mother,” and finally to “woman.”
Yuhki Touyama exhibits photographs she took while caring for her grandmother, who passed away two years ago during the coronavirus pandemic, along with photographs of family members from her 2008 series Line 13. Neither her grandmother nor her mother, who died suddenly last year, appear in the latter photographs, so Touyama decided to photograph herself in her grandmother’s place, in order to feel close to her.
Ishiuchi and Touyama use photography to communicate with loved ones who have passed away. Touyama says that showing her work in the same exhibition space with Ishiuchi’s Mother’s has allowed her to connect with her own mother in a new way. Through the exhibition, the “individuals” depicted in the pictures are liberated from their roles as photographic subjects. They acquire universality, crossing the boundary line into the realm of society.
Ishiuchi Miyako has been creating photographic history for a long time. Her artistic dialogue with Yuhki Touyama, a photographer from another generation, is sure to write a new page in the history of photography.
This exhibition, a dialogue between two female photographers of different generations, is supported by WOMEN IN MOTION, a Kering program that shines a light on the talent of women in the fields of arts and culture. Since 2015, WOMEN IN MOTION has been a platform of choice for helping to change mindsets and reflect on women’s place and recognition across artistic fields.
Yuhki Touyama was born in Chiba in 1983. In 2004, she graduated from Tokyo Visual Arts University’s Department of Photography. In her work, Touyama captures invisible things such as life and death, time, sensations, and notions. Spending a lot of time creating prints in her darkroom, Touyama is able to express large swaths of time and grains of air in three dimensions.
Major publications include Line 13 (Akaaka, 2008), Sasurai (abp, 2008), THE HINOKI – Yuhki Touyama 2016–2017 (THE HINOKI, 2017), and Cho kokka shugi – hanmon suru seinen to nashonarizumu (‘Supranationalism: An Anguished Youth and their Nationalism’) (written by Takeshi Nakajima, with photos by Yuhki Touyama; Chikumashobo, 2018).
