Artist Statement: The Three Cornered World
Some
scenes are intriguing for no apparent reason -
scenes that catch the eye and evoke a feeling despite seeming
ordinary.
This
work is composed of images of such scenes that I encountered in San Francisco,
Tokyo, and their suburbs. The
images from the two different countries naturally contain different types of
architecture and vegetation.
However, I find that there are always things in common between various
environments, and these commonalities stimulate my eye. The pictures taken of
Third Street, San Francisco and Ichikawa, Chiba, have been sequenced based on my
perspective, movement, and distance in relation to the subject.
Although things outside are already there independent of my being, they do not create an impression until I move in front of them. These images appeared at the moment when I stood there and released the shutter; they will never appear again. These landscapes exist alone but cannot exist without me, the photographer.
The
ambivalent relationship between the outside and my being does not change no
matter where I am. Particular
scenes born out of this relationship always follow me as if they are matrices of
perception which mediate between places and my being, giving me a
unique
perspective
no matter the location or the situation.
As I journey, new experiences give impressions that update these
matrices.
"The
Three Cornered World" is the English title of the Soseki Natsume novel,
Kusamakura. The novel begins with
an introduction that is famous among the Japanese:
Going
up a mountain track, I fell to thinking.
Approach everything rationally, and you become harsh. Pole along in
the stream of emotions, and you will be swept away by the current. Give
free rein to your desires, and you become uncomfortably confined. It is
not a very agreeable place to live, this world of ours.
When
the unpleasantness increases, you want to draw yourself up to some place where
life is easier. It is just at the point when you first realize that life
will be no more agreeable no matter what heights you may attain, that a poem may
be given birth, or a picture created.
My
family moved every few years because of my father's occupation. Each time
we
moved, I had to learn a new set of locations and know a new set of people. Wandering unfamiliar streets or being
alone among strangers was not easy.
In Soseki's novel he writes, "When the
The
English title, "The Three Cornered World," comes from this passage in the
novel:
When, however, we are
describing our journey to someone else, we show not even the slightest hint of
discontent. Not only do we tell of the interesting and pleasant things that
happened to us, which is only natural, but we even babble on proudly about those
hardships long ago of which at the time we complained so bitterly. This is not
done with any conscious intent of deceiving or cheating the listener. The
inconsistency arises because while actually on the journey our feelings are just
the same as those of anyone else. It is only afterwards when we tell our
experiences to others that we revert to being artists. Putting it as a formula,
I suppose you could say that an artist is a person who lives in the triangle
which remains after the angle which we may call common sense has been removed
from this four-cornered world.
The
word journey in the above passage has been translated from an old
Japanese word, "souyuu",
which means "I have once amused myself here." These photographs are images
of such a journey, which are composed of memories of places where I played in my
childhood and the landscapes that I encounter now while walking down the street
with my camera.
Hiroyo
Kaneko
July, 2006