Exhibition Archive
Shizuka YokomizoDistance
3 Jul - 28 Aug 2004
The focus of Yokomizo’s photography and video-work is the gap between self and other; the space that exists between ‘me’ and ‘you’. The object of the artist’s scrutiny is almost always a single isolated human being, but her own presence is always also implicated in this process of re-presentation, as, subsequently, is the viewer’s.
The terms of the encounter between the artist and her 'participant' are meticulously constructed, and it is the nature of this relationship that defines the resulting image. Thus, in contrast to the merciless ‘stare’ of documentary photography, Yokomizo’s images reproduce a strong sense of reciprocity, and an awareness of one’s own presence in relation to another.
In the Stranger series, each photograph shows someone looking out through a window. The artist has never met any of these people. She selected their addresses and then wrote an anonymous letter asking if the recipient would stand at a particular window, alone, with the room lights on, at a specific time of night so that she could photograph them from the street. The artist simply promised to be there waiting. If they did not wish to participate they could close the curtains, while if they chose to open the door to meet her the photograph would not be used.
In the Untitled (Hitorigoto) series, Yokomizo continues to explore the tension between the documentary and fictional aspect of photographic representation. However the artist has placed herself on the other side of the window and, by collaborating with her friends, she replaces the sense of physical and emotional distance with a world of intimacy and interiority.
Other works in the exhibition include an early video-work, A Boy with his Father , and two newly commissioned photographic works, Find A Date , using locally-sourced ‘lonely hearts’ newspaper columns, which continue the theme of solitude and the dialogue between private and public realms.
Shizuka Yokomizo was born in Tokyo and lives and works in London. Past exhibitions include Dear Stranger at The Approach, London, the Tate Triennial exhibition, Days Like These , and the touring show Reality Check , organised by the British Council and The Photographers Gallery.