Exhibition view.
Bangkok-based Japanese artist Soichiro Shimizu’s latest exhibition, “Re-Looks”, is a re-look both at his own art practice and at fellow artists he admires. Currently displayed in the elegant, well-lit YenarkArt Villa is a series of photographs which appear to have gone through practically almost every Photoshop function — cropped, stretched, resized and collaged — to the point of total abstraction.
Starting in February, Shimizu had reached out to 17 photographers whose works he admires — Dhanainun Dhanarachwattana, Piyatat Hemmatat, Tada Hengsapkul, Lek Kiatsirikajorn, Tawatchai Pattanaporn, Miti Ruangkritya, Soopakorn Srisakul and Manit Sriwanichpoom among them — and asked if they could give him photos they no longer use and were about to throw away.
“I asked them for these photos and for full authorisation to modify, turning them into my works,” said Shimizu. “This is not to show that my aesthetics is better than theirs, but simply because I admire their works so much, and I believe there’s something I can create and enhance out of it.”
The 17 works on view seem more like digitally painted works than photographs. Shimizu said he started by looking through these collections of photos and then tried to see them as if through the photographers’ eyes. After selecting the images he wanted, he had assistants help put all the elements together through Photoshop.
“I became the medium,” said Shimizu. “And sometimes, using my painter’s sensibility, put some of my elements in. The challenge was to keep my mind clear. I had to know exactly what’s going to happen next, using this photo as an underlying backdrop, that photo would be on the top, or some photos might have to be stretched or squeezed in a certain direction.”
The idea originated in his photography show “Kalopsia” at RMA Institute last year. It’s a series of close-up photos he took of foil paper which, wrapped around in the intricate shapes of tree roots, and he believes these photos contain the energy of the tree’s spirituality.
Likewise, Shimizu believes there’s a sense of devotion and energy in these photos, even though they’re in the trashcan, and positions himself as a mere tool in bringing it out again.
Work by Shimizu, using photographs by Manit Sriwanichpoom.
Curator Dr Prapon Kumjim wrote that Shimizu’s practice has emerged from the modern painting and printmaking traditions, and the works in this exhibition are kaleidoscopic cultural collisions that enrich his artistic palette.
Greeting visitors upon entering are three huge panels, their materials derived from photographs by Piyatat Hemmatat, Manit Sriwanichpoom and Chalitaporn Yamoon. In Piyatat’s piece, we can only guess that the collection of photos is of natural landscapes from unidentifiable locations. In two other pieces, however, we can still discern the political undertones in the photographers’ works even though Shimizu had mixed and collaged them almost beyond recognition. In Manit’s, for example, there are images of soldiers and citizens, suggestive of a streetside protest, while in Chalitaporn’s, it’s obvious the broken glasses and burnt remnants are from the May 2010 crackdown.
“It’s not only about my admiration for these photographers; they also have to know my work and my aesthetics,” said Shimizu. “Some photographers gave me roll film, some gave me very high-resolution files. One photographer gave me 40 photos, while another gave me as many as 3,000.”
We have come to know Shimizu through his series of abstract engraved wooden panels, in his debut solo show “Sculpere” at Chulalongkorn University’s The Art Center in 2014. A sense of symmetry pervades almost every single piece in that show, and this attribute is recognisable in his latest project, too.
Except for in Manit’s case, where we still see his Pink Man in the composition, it’s quite difficult to make out the photographer behind each work. In photographer Sam Cochaputsup’s piece, for example, we see something like a fragmented and explosive tower rising mighty and tall, even though the photos Sam gave Shimizu were actually from his commercial-product shooting.
“With my previous works, it was just me with myself, starting from zero,” said Shimizu. “For this show, I tried to be neutral and just hope that something would come out of these photographs through me.”
Works by Soichiro Shimizu.
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.