z u i h i t s u 随筆

"id" exhibition at the matchbaco gallery

I'm visiting as many exhibitions as I can while in Tokyo. There are many shows to choose from.

I was drawn to the oil paintings by Mariko Matsushita 松下まり子, another young Japanese artist whose work resonated with me. She uses thick, spontaneous brush strokes in red, purple and flesh tones. Sensuality, death and memory seem to emanate from the blurred, undefined faces and often gender-less bodies of her portraits. Quite riveting at times.

I spoke briefly to Ken-ichi Nakahashi, the director of the small gallery in the shinjuku area. He will be attending my show next week.

Met exhibiting artist-photographer at Place M

Last week, I met Yuka Mochizuki 望月柚花 at Place M gallery. A young artist, she was exhibiting her photos in the Mini Gallery, the same space where I will be showng.

We hit it off right away because we share a similar layered approach to our work, dealing with 'the real of the unreal' or 'the unreal of the real', in a sense.

Her exhibition was titled "perfect parallel world".

BORO exhibition at the AMUSE Museum

Today, I went to the exhibition of BORO at the AMUSE Museum in Atsakusa. Boro was a traditional form of textile mending or repair practised in Northern Japan. The intention was to extend the life of kimono and other garments, as well as bed covers, by sewing patches of used fabric or remnants, often indigo-dyed cotton.

Below are a few of the many examples on display.

You can find more details on the museum's website:

http://www.amusemuseum.com/english/boro/index.html

Tokyo street performances in Sangen-jaya

Last Saturday, I went to Sangen-jaya, an area of Tokyo, to see street performers.

I went specifically to see Dairakudakan, an internationally known butoh dance troupe who are based in Tokyo. They were performing "Gold-painting". James and I had the opportunity to see their performance of "Insects" last year at the Queen Elizabeth Thetre in Vancouver. They are coming back to Vancouver to perform "Paradise" in March 2017! Needless to say, we have already booked our tickets!

We met one of the troupe's dancers, Atsushi, in Vancouver. He will be attending my exhibition in Tokyo next week.

Tokyo exhibition: Place M schedule for the next two weeks

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Maybe I'll find a Japanese kodama (wood nymph) in this park!

Wait! What's that I see in the garden?

Tokyo exhibition: Gallery location

Place M gallery is located within 5 minutes' walking distance from where I'm staying, near a huge, beautiful park called Gyoen Gardens.

Tokyo exhibition: Preparing the kimono

I unrolled the four panels of the kimono print and hung them from a rod in my apartment. This will allow them to flatten out a bit before I hang and install the kimono on one of the gallery walls.

I'll be fixing a birch bark mask at the top.

Tokyo exhibition: Invitation

I've been in Tokyo for the past week where I'll be exhibiting at Photo Gallery Place M in the Shinjuku-Gyoemnae area.

More information on my website:

http://dennishumphrey.wix.com/artphoto

Clamshell Box

I recently attended a Clamshell Box workshop facilitated by Suzan Lee. I was able to construct a box that could house booklets, a special book or other precious objects.

As always, Suzan was very well-prepared and the workshop proceeded without a hitch in a great working space at Gilligan Girls in Vancouver.

Here's the box I created, made with a sleek Japanese cover fabric and Italian papers.:

Perhaps one of my future handmade books will be accompanied by a clamshell box.

Clamshell Box

I recently attended a Clamshell Box workshop facilitated by Suzan Lee. I was able to construct a box which could contain booklets, a special book or other objects. As always, Suzan was very well prepared and the workshop proceeded without a hitch in a great work space.

Here's the box I created, made with a sleek Japanese cover fabric and Italian papers.:

Perhaps one of my future handmade books will be accompanied by a clamshell box.

Books on photographers and visual aesthetics

Alfred Stieglitz: A Biography is great read that recounts his life as art photographer, founder of the Photo-Secession movement at the turn of the 20th century, and promoter of the finest art photographers in the pictorial tradition. It also recounts his Camera Works magazine and the art galleries he opened, as well as his marriage to Georgia O'Keefe.

Seaworks 1998-2013 by Paul Kenny is a beautiful book that features his beach-based still life images, all taken camera-less. He collects plants from various beaches, then grows them in glass containers, which he then scans. The resulting images are abstract, surreal. and simply breathtaking

In Looking at Images, Brooks Jensen explores images from a number of artists who have appeared in his LensWork or LensWork Extended publications. Brooks makes enlightening comments about visual aesthetics; these are enhanced with audio clips accessible through Q-codes at the bottom of each page.

Forest Spirits: interview and photos

The Taste and See Shop added 25 new photos to the album: Forest Spirits by Dennis Humphrey.

May 9 at 9:43am

Hanging the show

May 3: Hanging the Forest Spirits show using wire and wooden clips.

Forest Spirits exhibition

Gold leafing

Did a few tests today, applying adhesive size with a fine brush to small areas on the front of the pigment ink print, let it dry a few minutes, then applied the gold leaf. It worked, but I’m not sure I will cover large areas of the image: the process creates hard edges and my images are mostly soft and out of focus… I’ll play more. Once infused with wax, the metal leaf (imitation gold) should not oxidize.

A few images of the trials…

Top: gold leaf sheen visible in small areas where applied on surface of print
Centre: gold leaf sheen visible in small areas where applied on surface of print
Bottom: gold leaf applied to back of thin washi and infused with wax; no sheen, just a subtle warm toning

Visual haiku triptychs

For my Tokyo show, I am exploring what I call “visual haikus”, a series of triptychs I began a few years ago. I had worked with mixed media encaustics during the 2014 Encaustics workshop with Lean Macdonald in Victoria.
The haiku poetic form consists of 3 lines of 5-7-5 syllables and focuses on details of the here and now, often dealing with nature. I have decided to adapt the format to photographs shown in a 3-panel format replicating a 5-7-5 proportion (11″x17″). At least one of the panels (most likely the widest one, will feature the subject (human or nature). I will keep it open, letting the viewers make up their own interpretation of the haiku sequence or narrative.
I have been moving towards a brown warm-toned monochromatic palette, retaining red for a dash of colour, trying to simplify, reduce. In the images below, I use a red leaf texture layer in Photoshop to blend in with the darker areas of the photos, giving it the organic quality I am looking for. Here is a sample of 2 of the 9 images:

I will try printing the images above on thicker washi paper, applying gold leaf on the surface of some areas of the print, then infusing with it wax. Brown-black-gold-red….

In order to take advantage of the translucency and red pigment already part of the print, I will need to limit my use of mixed media. I may use pencil and black ink, red ink washes, red wax, perhaps embed a real leaf here and there… we’ll see.

I like the idea of the triptychs, yet I also like the single image above, which allows for a fuller view of the subject.

Japanese box making

I attended a Japanese box making workshop a short while ago, offered by Suzan Lee from the local chapter of CBBAG.