Akihiko Miyoshi
Monday, 9 April 2012
Work from his oeuvre.
“Throughout my career I have been exploring the intersection between art and technology most frequently dealing with issues surrounding photographic representation. My works often reveal the conventions of perception and representation through tensions created by the use of computers and traditional photographic techniques.
The photographs included here are of mirrors, paper, and tape taken with a large format camera as they attempt to unpack the structural mechanics of photographic representation by creating formally abstract pictures that are undeniably photographically real. While the images allude to abstraction the photographic nature of the images are emphasized as the image plane is selectively focused and blurred through the use of depth of field. The usually referencelessness nature of abstraction is contradicted by the presence of minute details captured by the use of a large format camera such as dust and scratch marks found on the surface of the mirror which makes the images very ‘real’ and photographic.
In other words these images have a duality (and tension) of being simultaneously abstract and extremely photographic.
Further, as with many of my other works the photographs also expresses my interest in the role of digital technology in photography and its aesthetic. The choice of red, green, and blue tape is based on the three primary colors that constitute a pixel. From a far the tapes can be seen as the pixels glowing on the computer screen. While they are made using primarily traditional photographic methods, they reference the new aesthetic that seems to be emerging as a result of the use of digital tools and technologies. The photographs always depict a silhouette of the hidden artist affirming the complex nature of authorship in the digital world.” – Akihiko Miyoshi