濡れた地蔵PROJECT Photosession2022
Photo Hiroki Doi
Paint Moeko Machida
Photo sessionシリーズ
アートユニット「濡れた地蔵PROJECT」において、インスタレーションアーティストの土居大記が、絵描きの町田藻映子の絵画作品を被写体にして、さまざまな環境下で撮影する写真シリーズである。町田の絵画である日本画は、岩絵具という粒子状の絵の具で描かれており、当てる光の強さや種類によって、絵画の見え方が大きく変化する。そのことから、町田の絵画作品の多様な表情を捉えるために、本シリーズの制作は始まった。本来日本画は野外展示も叶わないため、このシリーズにおいては、あらゆる自然環境化下や野外に置かれた絵画の姿を見ることができるのも、見所の一つである。さらに本作品の中には、空間表現が存在することも１つのポイントとなる。それは、写真撮影専門のカメラマンではなく、現象や空間の中に感覚を作り出す、インスタレーションアーティストの土居がシャッターを切るからこそ成立するものである。「濡れた地蔵PROJECT」では発足初期から続いている代表的なシリーズ作品である。
Photo exhibition 2022 at Ebiharashoten Tokyo
Paintings glow in very different ways if they are placed in different places, at different times and in different types of light. However, these paintings rarely have the opportunity to be viewed in diverse environments, especially as they do not stand up to permanent outdoor installation, for example. Usually, they are viewed in galleries or museums with lighting or in natural light from windows. But this work started with the idea that these paintings should have many more faces.
For Doi, the attempt to turn a two-dimensional painting into a two-dimensional 'photographic work' is a fresh challenge, both physically and metaphysically. It also makes the work of another person the subject of the work. When photographing, I worked out how to place the painting in the light and the surrounding environment, and I was able to sense the signs of the painting's smell. There was also a conflict at the retouching stage. This was not a process in which the artist Machida originally thought it would be sufficient to retouch the work in a way that would make it look the most like the painting.
The material is in a comfortable state. Doi continued to steer the work with this as a guideline.
The paintings reflected in the photographs did not have Machida's intention in them. Perhaps it was a combination of all the elements of the work.
Doi hopes that the photographs in this exhibition will also be made invisible by the artist's intention becoming an all-encompassing unity.
For Machida, the sense of distance, in which he wanted to show the work in this way, but left the final decision to Doi, led him to imagine, for example, what would happen after the work sold and left his hands.
Machida always paints while making a work, making strong demands on the work to play a certain role, and these demands continue until the exhibition is over. However, the artist is never in control of where and how the work is subsequently displayed by the person who bought it. After passing to another person, the work is finally freed from such demands of the artist and plays a different role there. Machida always found this phenomenon strange.
As long as the work remains with the author Machida, it can never emerge in the way it is, for example, in this photograph. Machida experienced this in front of his eyes in this work.