Aichi Triennale 2019

The black contour lines in each item in the "2 and 3, or the Rest (She and I)" series were not added by drawing onto printed photographs, but they were drawn with a pen around the subjects of the respective photos before shooting. Combined with the smooth lighting, this makes the photographs instantly look like paintings. The title hints at the presence of two human figures, and through sceneries and other motifs that include those contour lines, the works inspire the viewer to imagine situations of two people whose gazes mingle as both are looking at the same thing.
The "Laundry" series consists of items hung up with clothespins, depicted here as flat color planes. Even upon closer inspection, there isn't the slightest unevenness of textile surfaces, and the pictures are in fact photographs of actual sheets of printed paper fixed with clothespins. The way the artist inserts two-dimensional spaces into what look like photographs of three-dimensional objects may cause a certain sense of discomfort that prompts you to look hard at these pictures time and time again.
The contour lines work as elements that clearly separate and highlight the depicted objects from their respective environments. In the realm of painting, such lines have been employed by numerous artists such as Van Gogh, Cézanne, Rouault and Sesshu, and many a viewer may also be familiar with similar techniques from cel animation. The parts of flat color planes integrated into images of three-dimensional subjects appear as if operations of composing or arranging pictures using image editing software have been reconstructed in the real, physical world. The works in both of these series challenge our visual perception of things.