Awareness of between-ness: immaterial and material Katami, once a possession of the deceased
Miho Watanabe
A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master by Research
School of Art Faculty of UNSW Art and Design
March 2015 Table of Contents Page
Acknowledgements ii List of Images iii
Introduction Obsession with ‘between-ness’ 1
0.1. Abstract 1
1. Death, Immaterial and Material 1.1. Immaterial concepts are bestowed on objects material 6 1.2. The meaning of ‘between-ness’ 13
2. From photography to ‘between-ness’ 2.1. Hidden reality of photography 18 2.2. Toward ‘between-ness’ 25
3. The aesthetics of ‘between-ness’ 3.1. The hidden and open concepts of ‘awareness of between-ness’ 27 3.2. The art of ‘between-ness’ 31
4. Conclusion 35
5. Bibliography 37
6. Images 41
7. Appendices 47 Acknowledgements:
First and foremost, I would like to express my appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Paul Thomas who helped me throughout my experimentation and research with his knowledge and support, and his proactive questions which helped me materially and immaterially, open new gates for the investigation. At the same time he kept me from digressing from my subject matter.
I also would like to thank all the participants who kindly showed me their personal possessions for this project: UNSW Art & Design tool room and staff who always gave me support and ideas; my family and friends who helped me with my research trip in Japan, and ultimately, I would like to honour the deceased who were in this project.
ii List of Images:
6. Images
1.List David of Bailly,Images: Self-Portrait with Vanitas Symbols, 1651, Oil on wood, 65 x 97,5 cm Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden. http://www.wga.hu/html_m/b/bailly/selfport.html 6. Images 2. Pieter Claesz, Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1628, Oil on wood, 24 x 36 cm Metropolitan1. David Bailly, Museum Self-Portrait of Art, with New Vanitas York. Symbols, 1651, Oil on wood, 65 x 97,5 cm Stedelijk http://www.wga.hu/cgi-bin/search.cgi?author=&title=Still+life+with+a+skull+and+a+WritingMuseum De Lakenhal, Leiden. http://www.wga.hu/html_m/b/bailly/selfport.html +Quill&comment=&time=any&school=any&form=any&type=any&location=&format=5 2. Pieter Claesz, Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1628, Oil on wood, 24 x 36 cm 3.Metropolitan Hiroshi Senju, Museum Waterfall of Art,, 2009, New Natural York. pigments on Japanese mulberry paper,http://www.wga.hu/cgi-bin/search.cgi?author=&title=Still+life+with+a+skull+and+a+Writing 90.9x116.7cm.http://www.hiroshisenju.com/gallery/waterfall/1 +Quill&comment=&time=any&school=any&form=any&type=any&location=&format=5 4. Robert Doisneau, Le baiser de L’Hôtel de Ville, Paris (“The Kiss”), 1950. http://onlyoldphotography.tumblr.com/image/279414367023. Hiroshi Senju, Waterfall, 2009, Natural pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 90.9x116.7cm. http://images.hiroshisenju.com/www_hiroshisenju_com/ 5.ReScanHKG002_Waterfall_2009_F5090_9x116_7cm5.jpg Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind Saint-Lazare Station, 1932, Gelatin silver print, 35.2 x 24.1 cm MoMA. http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=98333 4. Robert Doisneau, Le baiser de L’Hôtel de Ville, Paris (“The Kiss”), 1950. 6.http://onlyoldphotography.tumblr.com/image/27941436702 Hiroshi Senju, Flat Water #8, 1993, 162 x 227 cm Japanese paintings http://www.nagai-garou.com/exhibition/past/0809_1f_e.html 5. Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind Saint-Lazare Station, 1932, Gelatin silver print, 35.2 x 24.1 cm 7.MoMA. Hiroshi http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=98333 Sugimoto, Movie Theatre, 1980, Canton Palace, Ohio, Silver Gelatin Print Dimensions variable by edition. http://www.c4gallery.com/artist/database/hiroshi-sugimoto/movie-theatres-theaters/hiroshi-6. Hiroshi Senju, Flat Water #8, 1993, 162 x 227 cm Japanese paintings sugimoto-movie-theatres-theaters.htmlhttp://www.nagai-garou.com/exhibition/past/0809_1f_e.html
8.7. TatsuoHiroshi Miyajima,Sugimoto, Mega Movie Death Theatre, 1999,, 1980, h.4.5 Canton x 15.3 Palace, x 15.3 mOhio, (installation), Silver Gelatin LED, Print IC, electric wire,Dimensions sensor, variable etc, Installation by edition. view at the Japan Pavilion, The 48th Venice Biennale. Courtesy of SCAIhttp://www.c4gallery.com/artist/database/hiroshi-sugimoto/movie-theatres-theaters/hiroshi- THE BATHHOUSE Photo by Shigeo Anza http://www.scaithebathhouse.com/en/artists/tatsuo_miyajima/sugimoto-movie-theatres-theaters.html
9.8. MihoTatsuo Watanabe, Miyajima, AwarenessMega Death of, 1999,Between-ness: h.4.5 x 15.3 Tree x 15.3and Self,m (installation), 2013, COFA LED, space IC, (UNSW electric Art &wire, Design sensor, Space etc, now). Installation view at the Japan Pavilion, The 48th Venice Biennale. http://www.scaithebathhouse.com/en/artists/tatsuo_miyajima/ 10. Miho Watanabe, Katami photographs’ sample, 2013-2015 digital files. 9. Miho Watanabe, Awareness of Between-ness: Tree and Self, 2013, COFA space (UNSW Art 11.& Design Miho Watanabe, Space now). Layers of paint washes are applied, 2014-2015.
12.10. Miho Watanabe, InstallationKatami photographs’ image of Katami, sample, 2014, 2013-2015 The Galleries, digital files. UNSW Postgrads conference. 11. Miho Watanabe, Layers of paint washes are applied, 2014-2015.
7.12. Appendices Miho Watanabe, Installation image of Katami, 2014, The Galleries, UNSW Postgrads conference.
Experimentation7. Appendices on different support and mediums. 1. Linen as support. 2. Experimentation on resin 3.Experimentation Perspex water on tank different frame support testing. and mediums. 4. Linen experimentation with breach. 5.1. LightingLinen as experimentation support. with creating black box and solar powered lighting. 2. Experimentation on resin "iii"iii 3.6. PerspexFinal MFA water exhibition tank frame documentation testing. at AD Space, UNSW Art & Design, Sydney on 26th of 4. LinenMay till experimentation 29th of May 2015. with breach. 5. Lighting1. Installation experimentation image 1 with creating black box and solar powered lighting. 2. Installation image 2 6. Final3. Installation MFA exhibition image documentation 3 at AD Space, UNSW Art & Design, Sydney on 26th of May4. Installationtill 29th of Mayimage 2015. 4 1.5. Installation image 15 2.6. Installation image 26 3.7. InstallationFemale Katami image together 3 4. Installation1. Left top: image「洋服 4 (Youfuku)」(Clothes) Photograph and painting mixed media on silk, 5. Installation30 x 42 image cm 5 6. Installation2. Right top: image「携帯ストラップ 6 (Keitai Strap)」(Cell-phone charms) Photograph and 7. Femalepainting Katami mixed together media on silk, 30x42 cm 1.3. Left top:bottom:「洋服「オレンジのペンダント (Youfuku)」(Clothes) Photograph(Orange Pendant) and painting」Photograph mixed media and painting on silk, 30mixed x 42 media cm on silk, 30x42 cm 「真珠の指輪 」 2.4. Right top:bottom:「携帯ストラップ (Keitai(shinjyu Strap) no yubiwa)」(Cell-phone(Perl ring) charms) Photograph Photograph and and painting mixed media on silk, 30x42 cm 8. Male3. Left Katami bottom: together「オレンジのペンダント (Orange Pendant)」Photograph and painting 1.mixed Left top: media 「とげ抜き on silk, (Toge30x42 nuki) cm 」(Tweezers) Photograph and painting mixed media 4. Righton silk, bottom: 30x42 「真珠の指輪cm (shinjyu no yubiwa)」(Perl ring) Photograph and 2.painting Right top: mixed 「手袋 media (Tebukuro) on silk,」 30x42(Gloves) cm Photograph and painting mixed media on 8. Malesilk, Katami 30x42 together cm 「自伝 」 1.3. Left top:bottom: 「とげ抜き (Jiden) (Toge nuki)(Autobiography)」(Tweezers) Photograph and painting mixed media on silk, 30x42 cm 「大工道具１ 」 2.4. Right top:bottom: 「手袋 (Tebukuro)(Daiku」(Gloves) dougu Photograph 1) (Carpenter and painting tool 1) Photograph mixed media and on silk,painting 30x42 mixed cm media on silk, 30x42 cm 9. “The3. Left portrait bottom: of my 「自伝 uncle (Jiden) who was」(Autobiography) a monk” Photograph Photograph and Painting and painting mixed mixedmedia mediaon linen,on 121x151 silk, 30x42 cm cm 4. Right bottom: 「大工道具１(Daiku dougu 1)」(Carpenter tool 1) Photograph and Double sidedpainting works mixed hanged media in onthe silk, middle 30x42 were cm paired with either from same deceased, couples9. “Theor from portrait same of person my uncle who who kept was them a monk” as Katami Photograph and Painting mixed media on linen, 121x151 cm 10. 「墨 (Sumi)」(Solid ink) photograph and painting mixed media on silk, aluminium, LED, Doubleperspex, sided works30x42 hangedcm in the middle were paired with either from same deceased, couples11. 「水差しor from same (Mizu person sasi)」 who(Water kept pitcher) them as photograph Katami and painting mixed media on silk, aluminium, LED, perspex, 30x42 cm 「フルート １ 」 10.12. 「墨 (Sumi) 」(Flute(Solid 1)ink) photographphotograph andand paintingpainting mixedmixed mediamedia onon silk,silk, aluminium,aluminium, LED, perspex,LED, perspex, 30x42 30x42 cm cm 「実印 」 11.13. 「水差し (Jitsu (Mizu in) sasi)(Registered」(Water pitcher)seal) photograph photograph and and painting painting mixed mixed media media on on silk, silk, aluminium, LED, perspex, 30x42 cm 「犬のぬいぐるみ 」 12.14. 「フルート １(Flute (Inu 1)」 no photograph nuigurumi) and(Stuffed painting toy mixed dogs) mediaphotograph on silk, and aluminium, painting LED,mixed perspex, media on 30x42 silk, aluminium, cm LED, perspex, 30x42 cm 「ポーチ 」 13.15. 「実印 (Jitsu (Pouch) in)」(Registered photograph seal) and photograph painting mixed and mediapainting on mixed silk, aluminium, media on silk,LED, aluminium,perspex, 30x42 LED, cm perspex, 30x42 cm 「お茶の道具 」 14.16. 「犬のぬいぐるみ (Ocha (Inu no no dougu nuigurumi)(Tools」 (Stuffedfor Tea) photographtoy dogs) photograph and painting and mixed painting media mixedon silk, media aluminium, on silk, LED, aluminium, perspex, LED, 30x42 perspex, cm 30x42 cm 「メガネとメガネケース 」 15.17. 「ポーチ (Pouch)」 photograph (Megane and to paintingMegane mixedcase) media(Glasses on silk, and aluminium, its case) LED, perspex,photograph 30x42 and cmpainting mixed media on silk, aluminium, LED, perspex, 30x42 cm 「大工道具２（ 」 16.18. 「お茶の道具 (OchaDaiku no dougu dougu 2)」(Tools(Carpenter for Tea) tool photograph 2) photograph and andpainting painting mixed mixed media onmedia silk, on aluminium, silk, aluminium, LED, perspex, LED, perspex, 30x42 30x42cm cm 「大工道具 （ 」 17.19. 「メガネとメガネケース3 Daiku dougu (Megane 3) (Carpenter to Megane tool case) 3) photograph」(Glasses andand paintingits case) mixed photographmedia on silk, and aluminium, painting mixed LED, perspex,media on 30x42 silk, aluminium, cm LED, perspex, 30x42 cm 「紐付きメガネ１ 」 18.20. 「大工道具２（Daiku(Himotsuki dougu 2)megane」(Carpenter 1) (Glasses tool 2) photographwith strings and1) photograph painting mixed and mediapainting on mixed silk, aluminium, media on silk, LED, aluminium, perspex, 30x42LED, perspex, cm 30x42 cm 「紐付きメガネ２ 」 19.21. 「大工道具3（Daiku(Himotsuki dougu 3) megane」(Carpenter 2) (Glasses tool 3) photograph with strings and 2) photograph painting mixed and mediapainting on mixed silk, aluminium, media on silk, LED, aluminium, perspex, 30x42LED, perspex, cm 30x42 cm 「重箱 」 20.22. 「紐付きメガネ１ (Jyubako) (Himotsuki(Tiered food megane boxes) 1) photograph」(Glasses andwith paintingstrings 1) mixed photograph media onand silk, paintingaluminium, mixed LED, media perspex, on silk, 30x42 aluminium, cm LED, perspex, 30x42 cm 「アルミのスコップ 」 21.23. 「紐付きメガネ２(Himotsuki (Alumi no megane sukoppu) 2)」(Aluminium(Glasses with scoop) strings photograph 2) photograph and paintingand paintingmixed media mixed on media silk, aluminium, on silk, aluminium, LED, perspex, LED, perspex, 30x42 cm 30x42 cm 「最後のプレゼント、スカーフ 」 22.24. 「重箱 (Jyubako)」(Tiered food (Saigoboxes) no photograph present Scarf) and painting(Last present,mixed media Scarf) on silk, iv aluminium,photograph LED,and painting perspex, mixed 30x42 media cm on silk, aluminium, LED, perspex, 42x30 cm 23.25. 「アルミのスコップ「袱紗 (Fukusa)」(Crape (Alumi wrapper) no sukoppu) photograph」(Aluminium and painting scoop) mixed photograph media andon silk, painting mixedaluminium, media LED, on silk,perspex, aluminium, 42x30 LED, cm perspex, 30x42 cm 24.26. 「最後のプレゼント、スカーフ「年賀状 (Nengajyou)」(New Year’s (Saigo greeting no present card) Scarf) photograph」(Last and present, painting Scarf) mixed photographmedia on silk, and aluminium, painting mixed LED, perspex,media on 42x30 silk, aluminium, cm LED, perspex, 42x30 cm 25.27. 「袱紗「ヘマタイトの指輪 (Fukusa)」(Crape (Hematite wrapper) no Yubiwa) photograph」(Hematite and painting ring) photograph mixed media and on painting silk, aluminium,mixed media LED, on silk,perspex, aluminium, 42x30 LED, cm perspex, 42x30 cm 26.28. 「年賀状「カーディガン (Nengajyou) (Cardigan)」(New」 photographYear’s greeting and card)painting photograph mixed media and paintingon silk, aluminium,mixed mediaLED, perspex, on silk, aluminium,42x30 cm LED, perspex, 42x30 cm 27.29. 「ヘマタイトの指輪「モノクロのスカーフ (Hematite (Monokuro no Yubiwa)no scarf)」」(Hematite(Black and ring) white photograph scarf) photograph and painting and mixedpainting media mixed on media silk, aluminium, on silk, aluminium, LED, perspex, LED, perspex, 42x30 cm 42x30 cm 28.30. 「カーディガン「勲章の外箱 (Kunshou (Cardigan) no」 sotobako) photograph」(Decoration and painting box) mixed photograph media on and silk, painting aluminium, LED,mixed perspex, media on 42x30 silk, aluminium, cm LED, perspex, 42x30 cm 29.31. 「モノクロのスカーフ「勲章 (Kunshou)」(Decoration) (Monokuro photograph no scarf)」 and(Black painting and white mixed scarf) media photograph on silk, and paintingaluminium, mixed LED, media perspex, on silk, 42x30 aluminium, cm LED, perspex, 42x30 cm 30.32. 「勲章の外箱「ジッポ (Zippo) (Kunshou」 photograph no sotobako) and painting」(Decoration mixed media box) photograph on silk, aluminium, and painting LED, mixedperspex, media 30x42 on cmsilk, aluminium, LED, perspex, 42x30 cm 31.33. 「勲章「アルバム (Kunshou) (Album)」」(Decoration) photograph photograph and painting and mixed painting media mixed on silk, media aluminium, on silk, LED, aluminium,perspex, 42x30 LED, cm perspex, 42x30 cm 32.34. 「ジッポ「墨バサミ (Zippo) (Sumi」 Basami) photograph」(Solid and ink painting holder) mixed photograph media onand silk, painting aluminium, mixed LED, media on perspex,silk, aluminium, 30x42 LED,cm perspex, 42x30 cm 33.35. 「アルバム「赤墨 (Akasumi) (Album)」」(Red photograph solid ink) andphotograph painting andmixed painting media mixed on silk, media aluminium, on silk, LED, perspex,aluminium, 42x30 LED, cm perspex, 42x30 cm 34.36. 「墨バサミ「エメラルドの指輪 (Sumi Basami) (Emerald」(Solid no yubiwa) ink holder)」(Emerald photograph ring) andphotograph painting and mixed painting media on silk,mixed aluminium, media on LED,silk, aluminium,perspex, 42x30 LED, cmperspex, 42x30 cm 35.37. 「赤墨「瑪瑙の指輪 (Akasumi) (Menou」(Red no solidyubiwa) ink)」 photograph(Agate ring) and photograph painting mixedand painting media mixedon silk, media aluminium,on silk, aluminium, LED, perspex, LED, perspex, 42x30 cm 42x30 cm 36.38. 「エメラルドの指輪「ハンドタオル (Hand (Emerald Towel)」 no photograph yubiwa)」(Emerald and painting ring) mixed photograph media andon silk, painting mixedaluminium, media LED, on silk,perspex, aluminium, 42x30cm LED, perspex, 42x30 cm 37.39. 「瑪瑙の指輪「手作りのポーチ (Menou (Tezukuri no yubiwa) no pouch)」(Agate」(Hand ring) madephotograph pouch) and photograph painting mixedand painting media onmixed silk, media aluminium, on silk, LED, aluminium, perspex, LED, 42x30 perspex, cm 42x30 cm 38.40. 「ハンドタオル「旅行鞄 (Ryokou (Hand kaban) Towel)」(Travelling」 photograph bag) photographand painting and mixed painting media mixed on silk, media on aluminium,silk, wood, LED,LED, perspex,perspex, 70x5042x30cm cm 39.41. 「手作りのポーチ「シャーペンと万年筆 (Tezukuri (Syapen no pouch) to mannenhitsu)」(Hand made」(Mechanical pouch) photograph pencil and and Fountain- painting mixedpen) photograph media on silk, and aluminium,painting mixed LED, media perspex, on silk, 42x30 wood, cm LED, perspex, 70x50 cm 40.42. 「旅行鞄「お数珠 (Ryokou(Ojyuzu) 」kaban)(Rosary)」(Travelling photograph bag) and photograph painting mixed and painting media on mixed silk, mediawood, LED,on silk,perspex, wood, 70x50 LED, cm perspex, 70x50 cm 43.41. 「銀のスプーン「シャーペンと万年筆 (Gin no (Syapen spoon)」 to(Silver mannenhitsu) spoon) photograph」(Mechanical and pencil painting and mixed Fountain- media onpen) silk, photograph wood, LED, and perspex, painting 70x50 mixed cm media on silk, wood, LED, perspex, 70x50 cm 44.42. 「香水「お数珠 (Kousui) (Ojyuzu)」(Perfume)」(Rosary) photograph photograph and and painting painting mixed mixed media media on on silk, silk, wood, wood, LED, LED, perspex, 70x50 cm 45.43. 「祖母の指輪母の手「銀のスプーン (Gin (Sobono spoon) no yubiwa」(Silver haha spoon) no te) photograph」(My mother and warringpainting her mixed mother’s media onring) silk, photograph wood, LED, and perspex, painting 70x50 mixed cm media on silk, wood, LED, perspex, 70x50 cm 44.46. 「香水“The place (Kousui) became」(Perfume) Katami for photograph me” photograph and painting and painting mixed mediamixed mediaon silk, on wood, silk, LED,wood perspex,LED, perspex, 70x50 93x129 cm cm 45.47. 「祖母の指輪母の手「フルート２ (Flute 2)(Sobo」photograph no yubiwa and haha painting no te) mixed」(My mediamother on warring silk, wood, her mother’s LED ring)perspex, photograph 42x20 cm and painting mixed media on silk, wood, LED, perspex, 70x50 cm 48.46. “The「犬のキーホルダー place became Katami (Inu no for Key me” Holder) photograph」(Dog and Key painting ring) photograph mixed media and onpainting silk, wood mixedLED, perspex, media on 93x129 silk, wood, cm LED, perspex, 50x40cm 47.49. 「フルート２「お札 (Ofuda) (Flute」(Talisman) 2)」photograph photograph and and painting painting mixed mixed media media on silk,on silk, wood, wood, LED LED, perspex,perspex 42x14cm42x20 cm 48.50. 「犬のキーホルダー「小銭入れ (Kozeni ire)(Inu」 no(Coin Key case) Holder) photograph」(Dog Key and ring) painting photograph mixed mediaand painting on silk, mixedwood, mediaLED, perspex, on silk, wood,40x50cm LED, perspex, 50x40cm 49.51. 「お札「真珠の指輪１ (Ofuda)」 (Shinjyu(Talisman) no photographyubiwa)」(Perl and ring painting 1) photograph mixed media and onpainting silk, wood, on silk, LED, perspexwood, LED, 42x14cm perspex, 42x30cm 50.52. 「小銭入れ「ネクタイ (Nekutai)(Kozeni ire)」(Tie)」(Coin photograph case) photograph and painting and on painting silk, wood, mixed LED, media perspex, on silk, wood,42x30cm LED, perspex, 40x50cm 51.53. 「真珠の指輪１「トトロ (Totoro) (Shinjyu」 photograph no yubiwa) and」 painting(Perl ring on 1)silk, photograph wood, LED, and perspex, painting 42x30cm on silk, 54. wood,「ラジオ LED, (Radio) perspex,」 photograph 42x30cm and painting on silk, wood, LED, perspex, 42x30cm 52. 「ネクタイ (Nekutai)」(Tie) photograph and painting on silk, wood, LED, perspex, 「時計と時計バンド 」 55.42x30cm (Tokei to Tokei band) (Watch and band) photograph and painting on silk, wood, LED, perspex, 42x30cm v 53.56. 「トトロ「略章 (Ryakushou) (Totoro)」 」photograph(Miniature and medal) painting photograph on silk, andwood, painting LED, perspex,on silk, wood, 42x30cm LED, perspex, 30x42cm 57.54. 「記念コイン「ラジオ (Radio) (Kinen」 photograph coin)」(Commemorative and painting on coin) silk, photograph wood, LED, and perspex, painting 42x30cm on silk, 55.wood, 「時計と時計バンド LED, perspex, (Tokei30x42cm to Tokei band)」(Watch and band) photograph and painting 58.on 「数珠袋 silk, wood, (Jyuzu LED, bukuro) perspex,」(Rosary 42x30cm case) photograph and painting on silk, wood, LED, 56. perspex,「略章 (Ryakushou) 30x42cm 」(Miniature medal) photograph and painting on silk, wood, LED, 59.perspex, 「猫の毛玉 30x42cm (Neko no kedama)」(Cat far ball) photograph and painting on silk, wood, 57. LED,「記念コイン perspex, (Kinen30x42cm coin)」(Commemorative coin) photograph and painting on silk, 60.wood, 「お皿 LED, (Osara) perspex,」(Plate) 30x42cm photograph and painting on silk, wood, LED, perspex, 58. 30x42cm「数珠袋 (Jyuzu bukuro)」(Rosary case) photograph and painting on silk, wood, LED, 61.perspex, 「ブローチ 30x42cm (Broach)」 photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium LED, perspex, 59. 42x30cm「猫の毛玉 (Neko no kedama)」(Cat far ball) photograph and painting on silk, wood, 62.LED, 「さくらんぼのペンダント perspex, 30x42cm (Sakuranbo no Pendant)」(Cherry pendant) photograph 60.and 「お皿 painting (Osara) on 」silk,(Plate) Aluminium photograph LED, andperspex, painting 42x30cm on silk, wood, LED, perspex, 63.30x42cm 「ゴジラ (Godzilla)」 photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium LED, perspex, 61. 42x30cm「ブローチ (Broach)」 photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium LED, perspex, 64.42x30cm 「ベビー服 (Baby fuku)」(Baby clothes) photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium 62. LED,「さくらんぼのペンダント perspex, 42x30cm (Sakuranbo no Pendant)」(Cherry pendant) photograph 65.and 「コンパクト painting on (Compact) silk, Aluminium」 photograph LED, perspex, and painting 42x30cm on silk, Aluminium LED, perspex, 63. 42x30cm「ゴジラ (Godzilla)」 photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium LED, perspex, 66.42x30cm 「手袋２ (Tebukuro2)」(Gloves 2) photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium LED, 64. perspex,「ベビー服 30x42cm (Baby fuku)」(Baby clothes) photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium 67.LED, 「ショッピングリスト perspex, 42x30cm (Shopping list)」 photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium 65. LED,「コンパクト perspex, (Compact)30x42cm 」 photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium LED, perspex, 68.42x30cm Floor view of the installation 66.69. Opening「手袋２ image (Tebukuro2) photo by」(Gloves Mayu Kanamori 2) photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium LED, perspex, 30x42cm 67. 「ショッピングリスト (Shopping list)」 photograph and painting on silk, Aluminium LED, perspex, 30x42cm 68. Floor view of the installation 69. Opening image photo by Mayu Kanamori
vi Introduction
Obsession with ‘between-ness’
My obsession with 'between-ness' started whilst taking photographs as a professional photographer. I always wondered what exists between the subject, the camera, and myself as the author. There is something in between, because I always connected to the space around the subject, which was the key to producing meaningful outcomes. I delivered more interesting outcomes when I was connected to the subject and the space it occupied. It did not matter if the subject was organic or non-organic. This obsession emerged as a topic that would drive my current research into what this 'between-ness' is.
0.1 Abstract
‘Between-ness’ is an 'invisible' subject to explore, and the existence of 'between-ness' requires 'things' that create the between, and without these 'things' there will be no 'between'. In this research, the space between ‘things’ and the camera is referred to as being immaterial and the subject as being material. My obsession with ‘between-ness’ is to connect the subject, the viewer and the space. The material object I chose for this research is called Katami, which is an object that was once a possession of the deceased, kept as a memento or remembrance of the dead by Japanese people. I was born in Japan, but have lived in Sydney for nearly half of my life. As a result, I have not been able to attend funerals of my relatives and friends. Having missed the communal sharing to honour and to appreciate the life of the deceased, I chose Katami as the material object of this research, and created art which represented the visualisation of the ‘between-ness’: the interconnectedness between the deceased and the living.
1 For the person who keeps it for a memento or remembrance of the dead, Katami has immateriality within. When the theory of animism is applied to Katami/object, it shows that Katami/object not only possesses and reminds us of feelings, emotions, memories and history of the deceased, but also other immaterial meanings. Remembering the dead and the theory of memento mori reminds us of our mortality. Death-related artworks/paintings, under the umbrella of memento mori called vanitas is akin to my research. However compared to vanitas, my work is more subtle and ambiguous because of the Japanese aesthetic of wabi sabi, which encompasses the transience of life. All of these concepts are associated with this research since the concept of Katami realises the importance of life and death, remembers the dead, and learns from the memories of the dead. Creating artworks is important so that we can honour the deceased, and because I believe aesthetics encompasses a universal language, allowing us to understand the importance of ‘between-ness’ or being aware of ‘between-ness’.
Awareness of ‘between-ness’ occupies a large part of our perceptions. As a professional photographer, I always felt energy between the subject of my photographs and myself. This energy or something in between is an important connection for the aesthetic outcome of the artwork. I have explained ‘between- ness’ in this research and its use as related to the Japanese aesthetic called “ma”. “Ma"is used in various types of Japanese art and aesthetics. “Ma” is translated as a gap, the time between or the space between. Although this empty space/time is significant in Japanese aesthetics, if I had lived my whole life in Japan, I would not recognise its significance, and never would have investigated this concept to explain what ‘between-ness’ is. I had been navigating both Western and Japanese cultures and through my photographic practice, it became necessary to explore ‘between-ness’. This distanced view of both cultures created and changed how I represent and create my art. It was necessary for me to explore the phenomenon, as creating artworks is intrinsic to my life histories. Investigating the meaning of photography/photographs was an important means of expression as I worked as a professional photographer and
2 loved taking pictures. Exploring the meaning of photography, and pondering the nature of ‘between-ness’ took my journey to the next level.
Photography is still a new medium compared to the history of painting, yet the rapid changes of technology and its effects on our society have made photography important. Compared to paintings where there is one authentic original, photography can be said to be an ambiguous medium because there is no single authentic print. There are many arguments pertaining to photography and the authenticity of its originality as a print, and their duplication as copies, which is the main source of the ambiguity. The reality of photographs is discussed as it looks realistic, but it is not reality due to the difference between our eyes and the camera's eye. In the digital age, original photographs have become immaterial since we keep our photographs as digital files. Over time, there has been a separation between photographs as material objects and photographs as immaterial images but this ambiguous medium still captures a semblance of reality. Capturing a photographic reality of a past time and space is analogous to the deceased possessing the Katami/object in his/her life. The reality of Katami as an object may be captured in photographs, and being photographed means the object’s reality has been removed and moved to the same state as the deceased.
In order to explore ‘between-ness’ of the material object Katami in my practice, I rubbed, scraped and dissolved the surface of the photographic images. Immaterial meanings of a Katami were represented using layers of colour and light. The work implies that colour and form exist between the subject and the viewer, reality and the imaginary, light and shadow creating an awareness of the Japanese aesthetic. The concept of ‘awareness of between-ness’ reflects a re- mix of influences on my life in order to identify the differences between cultures and the methods of expression to recreate time, space and that which is in between in order to make the invisible ‘between-ness’ visible.
Being aware of ‘between-ness’ is not as a new concept, but as an area of
3 research which deals with concealment and revelation as demonstrated by Japanese artists. Hiroshi Senju uses his Japanese style painting to depict the passage of time and Hiroshi Sugimoto uses photographs to show empty space as passage of time. Tatsuo Miyajima uses digital numbers and LED lights to express what is in between the material and the spiritual. These and other artists will be drawn upon to demonstrate the role that ‘between-ness’ evokes in their work as well as my own
In this research “Awareness of Between-ness: Immaterial and material, Katami, once a possession of the deceased” is a re-creation of the time and space in which I encountered each Katami. Photographs’ hidden reality and emotion, histories, and memories by use of colour, are combined into the two dimensional work. Then, lighting is installed to recreate space, time and that which lies in between to instigate the viewers’ own contemplation of ‘between- ness’.
4 Awareness of Between-ness: Katami, once a possession of the dead
The object has vestige for remembering the dead. The object has existed in the space of death and life. The object has been passed onto the one who is left behind. The object has not perished with the dead. The object resides in the past and future. The object has no emotions.
One has feelings and perceptions. One has a history and memory of the dead. One received the object as a memento of the dead. One has not passed away with the dead. One remembers the past but imagines the future. And one has emotions.
"5 1. Death, Immaterial and Material
1.1 Immaterial concepts are bestowed on to objects immaterial
The aim of my research is to explore ‘between-ness’ in relation to the immaterial and material and to make invisible subjects visible. The materials I chose for this research are objects that were once possessions of now dead relatives or close friends. These objects are traditionally called “Katami” which is something Japanese people keep for a memento or remembrance of the dead. I have been residing in Australia for almost half of my life, leaving all of my family back in Japan. Due to this physical distance, I have missed many funerals of my relatives and friends to honour and appreciate the life of the deceased. I understand and acknowledge that they are dead, but two parallel realities exist within me. In one reality, relatives and friends are still alive in my memory, and they are still alive and living in Japan, yet in another, I acknowledge that they have passed away. I am researching the Katami kept by my relatives and friends of those who have passed away, in an attempt to explore and possibly bridge the gap between these two realities. In the light of this I am researching the ‘in-between’ of the Katami (the material) and our perceptions (immaterial).
The Katami is an object that is a memento or remembrance of the dead only for the person who is related to, or close friends of, the dead. This object encloses immateriality and materiality within it, since the Katami/object reminds us of memories, histories and relationships with the deceased. Understanding an object as Katami shifts our image of the object from material to immaterial. The object becomes sacred when the meaning of the object is found. The Katami could be a valuable object but it often focuses more on memory than its material value. Ikeuchi said Katami was a very important item that had a function of reification of the deceased.1 The loss of loved ones means an end to physical
1 H Ikeuchi, Ihin ya Katami no motsu imi-Taisho soushitsu no shinri- (Meaning of memento or Katami-psychology of object loss-) in Annual Seminar 2006 168th public program 2007,03,31, PP139-152, Kansai University economypolitics research institute, 2006, p. 142. 6 relationships, but in our inner being, there is an attempt to mend fragmented hearts and minds towards the deceased, in order to recreate and regrow our relationship with the deceased.2 The physical distance to the deceased creates a mental attachment to the deceased friend or relative. Katami becomes a key object to allow memories and relationships with the deceased to remain close by. Thus Katami/object becomes immaterial.
An object’s immateriality is not only about our memories, histories or feelings but it can be extended to applying the religious theories of animism found in indigenous beliefs and other religions. Animism is a theory where inorganic, organic or even natural phenomena possess spiritual properties. This concept of animism was cited in Edward B. Tylor’s Primitive Culture.3 Tylor explained: “Animism includes the belief in souls and in a future state, in controlling deities and subordinate spirits”.4 The traditional Japanese religion, Shinto, is categorised as animism due to its beliefs and ancient teachings.5 I have never studied or followed the Shinto religion myself, but it is embedded in Japanese culture. Koizumi claimed that “About two thirds of the adult population belong to no particular religious sect and show no ‘apparent’ interest in religion”.6 But the Japanese still carry with them aspects of animism. Allison and Cross called Japanese toys “Aesthetic techno-animism” and suggested that the Japanese “animist-unconscious” is visible throughout post-WWII to the present,7 where
2 ibid., p. 142.
3 E B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, William Brendon and Son Printers, London, 4th ed, 1903.
4 ibid., p. 427.
5 C Jensen & Blok, Techno-animism in Japan: Shinto Cosmograms, Actor-network Theory, and the Enabling Powers of Non-human Agencies, in Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 30, 2013, 84 115, p. 84.
6 T Koizumi, The ways and means of the gods: An analysis of Japanese religion, in Journal of Cultural Economics, vol. 3, 1979, 7588, p. 76.
7 A Allison & G Cross, Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination, 1st ed., United States, University of California Press, 2006, Kindle, loc. 463 481. 7 the boundary of the human and non-human (‘extra-human’) does not exist.8 Although not many Japanese follow Shinto and its old teachings, the recent popularity of Manga characters, and the way they are treated in an animistic manner shows the concept of animism continues to exist within Japanese culture.
My thoughts on these theories lead me to regard non-organic material like Katami/objects as encompassing the immaterial not only for our memories and feelings for the deceased, but also representative of spiritual property as with animism theory. Furthermore, Katami is kept only by people left behind by the deceased, holding with them thoughts, and memories of their material objects. However, it is possible to believe, either unconsciously or consciously, that Katami consists of the spirit of the deceased. Sometimes the Katami will be used until it deteriorates and is ready to be thrown away, and I think living with Katami eases the grief of the loss over time, because using Katami makes one feel the loved one’s spirit is nearby. However, sometimes Katami is forgotten and lost in our homes. Losing Katami is similar to the way we forget about mortality since remembrance of the dead often leads us to face the mortality of our own lives.
In the Western culture, the Latin word, memento mori is a remembrance of death, a concept prominent in the history of art. When death-related objects appear in a still life painting it is called vanitas – a genre of still life paintings, which symbolise a reminder of our mortality.9 Excellent examples are ‘self- portrait with vanitas symbols’ by David Bailly in 1651, and ‘Still life with a skull and a Writing Quill’ by Pieter Claesz in 1628.10 Both of these paintings included a skull as memento mori. Vanitas paintings include images of skulls, candles,
8 C Jensen & Blok, op.cit., p. 85.
9 N Schneider, Still life: still life painting in the early modern period, Germany, Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 1994, p. 77.
10 Image list, 1 and 2. 8 clocks, and wilting flowers to remind the viewer of death11 and to remind us that death will come to all of us. The skull in the still life paintings was commonly used in Baroque art.12 Using a skull in a still life painting is an obvious way to remind us of the transience of life, and the aesthetic condition of these paintings were carefully considered in Baroque style.13 The vanitas was concerned with the visual, physical and technical, which are harmoniously connected to aesthetics, which were of Baroque style and thinking.14 However, Schneider explained that in the 17th century, vanitas in regards to objects and death, “always contained an element of ambivalence ... its (object-oriented) attractiveness was marred by the ominous presence of a skull to remind the viewer of the transience of all things”.15 The materials used in vanitas have universal meanings, which relate to death, to understanding this life, and death as an event.
Materiality is inevitable in order to understand this concept. Kobialka said “memento mori is oriented towards the future ... no matter how carefully we create a world that keeps us within its structures of belonging, death collapses the affirmative configuration of life.” 16 Katami is memento mori, and the work of Katami can be categorised as similar to vanitas paintings, but Katami itself is not recognised by others because the meaning of the object is veiled in the holder’s memories. This makes the concept of Katami more ambiguous than
11 M Southgate, Vanitas Still Life, in The Journal of American Medical Association, vol. 284, 2000,
12 C Coley, A Vanitas Still-Life by Petrus Schotanus, in Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, vol. 38, No.4 (1958-1959), pp. 83-85,
13 ibid., p. 84.
14 Coley, op. cit., p. 84.
15 Schneider, op. cit., p. 79.
16 M Kobialka, Of Last Things in Memento Mori: Silence, eternity and death, in Performance Research, vol. 15, 2010, 131139,
The concept of the transience of life in vanitas and portraying it in aesthetic presentations can be found in the Japanese aesthetic of wabi sabi. The aesthetic of wabi sabi is known to be ambiguous. Wabi sabi comes from two words: wabi from “lonesome” (but the meaning of the word came to be 'free from the material world, simple life of unity and peace') and sabi came from “rusting” (an object will rust and not last forever).17 One of the known understandings of wabi sabi is that beauty lies in between the processes. Juniper cited the old Zen tale: a man encountered hungry tigers, and just as he was falling, he found some wild strawberries, which were probably the last thing he would ever taste.18 Wabi sabi is bittersweet like the beauty that lies between life and death, which is one of the explanations of the wabi sabi.19 The Katami is not wabi sabi but it is associated with remembrance of the dead, important memories, and transience of human life. Discovering the aesthetics in transience is wabi sabi.
Prusinski suggested that “Wabi sabi depicts a crude or often faded beauty that correlates with a dark, desolate sublimity.”20 The object has no darkness or subliminal sides to it until the discovery of the object’s meaning. Katami/object has an ambiguous property like Japanese aesthetics although the object itself has its own beauty if we apply the concept of the Japanese aesthetic sabi, that
17 A Juniper, Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence, United States, Tuttle Publishing, 2003, p. 48-49.
18 ibid., p. 1.
19 ibid., p. 1.
20 L Prusinski, Wabi-Sabi, Mono no Aware, and Ma: Tracing Traditional Japanese Aesthetics Through Japanese History, in Studies on Asia, A Riaz (ed), , series IV, vol. Vol.2, No.1., 2012, 2549,
To understand the ‘between-ness’ of the immaterial and material, we must acknowledge that which is not in between. Material/Katami and immaterial/ perception are ‘what is not in between’. Perception is how we sense everything. Senses of sound, sight, touch, smell and taste are normally identified as the doorway to human perception. Sugano explained perception in a sense that it is ‘apparent content’, and a certain kind of judgment and cognition, thus people think of perception as a psychological matter.24 However, art, like music, painting, movies or poems rely on more than words or more than sounds to convey expression, ‘traveling’ between the artwork and the audience. Merleau- Ponty said that an artwork is an inalienably individual effort, and because of
21 ‘things’ is used to include both material and immaterial things.
22 ibid., p. 29.
23 S Sontag, Shashin ron (On photography), trans. K Kondo, Japan, Shobunsha Pty. Ltd., 1977, p. 26.
24 M Merleau-Ponty, Chikaku no Tetsugaku (Causeries 1948), trans. & exposition. T Sugeno, 2nd ed., Japan, Chikuma Books, 2012, p. 27. 11 that, function and content of expression were inseparable so we could not interpret the meaning of the art piece without direct contact.25 Sometimes there are no words to explain objects or actions, thoughts or feelings and trying to express it verbally may reduce or constrict its meaning.
To convey a sense of understanding this phenomenon, it would be like putting your words into your hands as if they were solid objects, but as soon as you lay your words on your hand, they fall through your fingers like sand. This could not be explained as psychological perception. As Merleau-Ponty said in his last unfinished book, The Visible and the Invisible, “Science presupposes the perceptual faith and does not elucidate it”.26 Perception is based on ontological perspective and describes the attributes of the world, thus actualising individual experiences.27 We all have individual perceptions by using ‘senses’ to gather information. However, it is not only our senses that perceive everything. Merleau-Ponty described the relationship between human perception and space as “the world of perception: French national radio lectures in 1948”, explained that when one person is angry at an other person, the anger is not within the one person, or the other, but the anger is in between two persons, and it ‘stretches out’ into the space.28 Space is ‘between-ness’, and the reciprocal energy in between a subject and myself in the case of my photography, could be our perceptions, which float in space. Thus, our perception/immaterial spread into the space of ‘between-ness’. When we encounter materials like Katami, and have understood what Katami is, our perception will spread into the space that the Katami occupies including the aura around the memories.
25M Merleau-Ponty, Chikaku no Genshou gaku (Phenomenologie De La Perception), trans. Yoshirou Takeuchi and Sadataka Kogi, 18th ed., Japan, Misuzu Shobo, 1982, p. 251.
26 M Merleau-Ponty, The visible and the invisible, C Lefort (ed), trans. Alphonso Lingies, United States, Northwestern University Press, 1968, p. 14.
27 Merleau-Ponty, Chikaku no Tetsugaku (Causeries 1948), op. cit., p. 28.
28 ibid., p. 300. 12 1.2. The Meaning of ‘between-ness’
‘Between-ness’ is a reciprocal energy, which I believe flows in between a subject and myself.
Awareness of ‘between-ness’ is to be aware of this flow of energy.
‘Between-ness’ is an ‘invisible’ subject to explore, and the existence of ‘between-ness’ requires ‘things’29 that are not in between. Without these ‘things’, there will be no ‘between’. The concept of the ‘between-ness of immaterial and material’ is intangible, and my research aims to analyse and depict the transition of the visible to invisible in order to create an understanding of such ‘between-ness’.
‘Between-ness’ is everywhere around us: in between objects, in between objects and us, in between human beings, in between human memories, in between time and in between space. There are endless combinations of ‘between-ness’. Such ‘between-ness’ is explained by the Japanese word “ma” which is translated in many ways such as a gap or opening, a negative space or time between fixed points.30 “Ma” is used in traditional Japanese aesthetics as well as in more recent art of all kinds, and without “ma”, the structure of an art form does not have integrity. Isozaki translated the Japanese word ‘ma’ from the Iwanami Dictionary of Ancient Terms thus: ‘the word ma is a conceptualisation of both space and time and means, in spatial terms, the “natural distance between two or more things existing in a continuity” or the “space delineated by posts and screens (that is, rooms)” or in temporal terms, “the natural pause or interval
29 The word ‘things’ represents both immaterial and material things: emotion, memories, history or relationship, and physical objects.
30 L Di Mare, Ma and Japan, in Southern Communication Journal, vol. 55, 1990, 319328,
On the other hand, Prusinski suggested “Ma represents a beauty in emptiness ... The beauty of “ma” lies in the difficulty of depicting it.”32 The Japanese aesthetic sense of “ma” has a full yet ambiguous meaning, which could be interpreted as a way of seeing into the Japanese history of religion and culture.33 “Ma” is used widely throughout different art forms like plays, paintings, music, flower arrangements, the tea ceremony and Japanese sit-down comedy called ‘Rakugo’.34 Di Mare noted “for the Japanese “ma” constitutes a “gap” or “interval” that represents a collapse of time and space which differs from the western notion of time and space as linear and teleological.”35
I had been having difficulty explaining the meaning of ‘between-ness’/“ma” but Di Mare made it clearer to me that Western and Japanese differences in understanding time and space was the source of this difficulty. I would not have noticed this if I had lived in Japan all my life. Time and space exist as one, and conceptualising them is a crucial property of the Japanese aesthetic.36 “Ma” is sometimes more important than positive space/time. For example, a Zen flower arrangement is made consisting of an interplay between negative space and flowers, and in the Japanese aesthetic “ma”, or ‘between-ness’ of space, is framed by its supported structure/positive space, which is the flower.37 "Ma" arranges flowers, but at the same time arranges the surrounding space, which
31 A Isozaki, Ma: Japanese time-space. An exhibition held at the Musee des Art Decoratifs, in Paris, in Japan architect, Tokyo, Shinkenchiku-Sha, 1979, p. 69 80, (p. 70.).
32 Prusinski, op. cit., p. 29.
33 R Pilgrim, Intervals (Ma) in Space and Time: Foundations for a Religio-Aesthetic Paradigm in Japan, in History of Religions, vol. 25, 1986, p. 255.
34 ibid., p. 255 - 260.
35 Di Mare, op. cit., p. 319.
36 Isozaki, op. cit., p. 70.
37A Groom, Placed Into Abyss, in exhibition catalogue Mise en abyme by Anna Kristensen at Kalimanrawlins, Victoria, 18th Nov - 17th Dec 2011, 2011. 14 balances negative and positive spaces, that is harmonious balance of the aesthetic in Zen art. This negative space/nothingness plays a large part of its aesthetic, which means nothingness is not nothing but rather important or something. Even though this nothingness or ‘between-ness’/negative space offers nothing for human eyes, ‘between-ness’ is not nothing-ness, rather, it is full of elements such as oxygen or a magnetic field which the human eye does not recognise. They are only recognised by scientific tests. But learning to see the negative space in a drawing study is an unconscious understanding that there is something in between. And to consciously practice seeing all the elements in negative space is important for art forms. In another words, the importance of ‘between-ness’/“ma”/negative space is not only integral to Japanese aesthetics but also universal aesthetics either consciously or unconsciously.
There are some words that cannot be easily translated due the difference in languages and cultures, and sometimes these nuances are better understood in sign language and visual expressions. Even if we speak the same language, our perceptions differ. Explanations by words or illustrations may make the meaning clearer, but aesthetics capture a more universal understanding of feelings or perceptions, which connect our selves as human beings. Senju explained in his Japanese book that when he painted “The Fall”38 series, the paintings acted as mirrors of the painter’s ethos.39 He did not paint from language or thought, but intuitively creating the series through his body.40 The aesthetic created by the intuitive bodily gestural movements became an internationally accepted aesthetic of a universal language. Senju described the example of the European missionaries who said ‘this is God’ when they saw Niagara Falls and similarly, the Native Americans feared Niagara as God.41
38 Image list, 3.
39 H Senju, E wo Kaku Yorokobi, Japan, Kobunsha Shinsho, 2004, p. 85. (note: since there is no english translated book has published, title can be translated as A Joy of painting.)
40 ibid., p.85.
41 ibid., p. 85-86. 15 André Malraux also said Nachi Falls is God when he saw the Falls, much as the Japanese believe God dwells in a falls.42 What Senju explained here is that absorption does not stop at the barrier of cultures or languages. This concept may not be common to all languages and cultures, yet we may absorb an understanding of the subconscious relationship in universal aesthetics. Aesthetics have no boundaries associated with human categorisations.43 Senju’s universal aesthetics amplify the void of ‘between-ness’/“ma” not as a term in languages but as an intuitive mark that can be understood by everybody.
All of these would not have been considered if I had lived my whole life in Japan. The theory of diaspora can be applied to me as well. Floyd’s theory on diaspora explained that people of African origin represent complex combinations of influence from African and European societies in their art practice44 , which explains why my Japanese and Australian views do not come from one side or the other but lie somewhere between the two. Therefore, my interest in ‘between-ness’ is clearer because I find myself in ‘between-ness’. However, since the industrial revolution, technology has allowed people to travel more freely from country to country, this merging of cultural experience becoming an aspect of globalisation. Simultaneously, the times we are living in today are surrounded by high-speed technology that accelerates towards the future while growing in hybridity everywhere. Culturally, Bhabha explained the idea of hybridity in the cosmopolitan condition as globalisation and multiculturalism that has changed the relationship between traditional notions
42 ibid., p. 85-86.
43 H Senju, Bi wa Toki wo Koeru, Japan, Kobunsha Shinsho, 2004, p. 18. (note: since there is no english translated book has published, title can be translated as Aesthetic can outreach time.)
44 S Floyd, Toward a Theory of Diaspora Aesthetics, in Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interarts Inquiry, vol. 4, 1998,
45 H Bhabha, The manifesto, in Wasafiri, vol. 14, 1999, 3839,
46 ibid., p. 38.
47 L Gilbert & J Lo, Performing Hybridity in Post-Colonial Monodrama 1, in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, SAGE, , 1997,
48 L Grossberg, The Space of Culture, The Power of Space in The Post-Colonial Question, L Chambers & L Curti (eds), United States, London!; Routledge, 1995, p. 170. 17 2. Photography to ‘between-ness’
2.1 Hidden reality of photography
Photographs are objects that allow us to touch and feel and imagine and remember time and space in the past. Barthes categorised photographs as examples of laminating objects and the space between, thus making them inseparable.49 The development of digital photography and media that enable us to see the photographs on a phone, a TV, or a computer screen are not laminated objects, but digital devices. However they are still behind a glass screen. There is something in between our eyes and the actual photographic images. That something is not only a laminate or a piece of glass, but something else divides the reality we are in and the photographs' reality. As Roland Barthes said, “once it was there”.50 It might be argued that a black and white photographic print or an inkjet print has no glass or laminate, but there is still an invisible distance between our reality and the mechanical or scientific creation of images which can reproduce copy of a copy. Photography is a reprint-able medium, which could produce many original prints and copies. The development of reproducing artworks that were copies of original works challenged authorship, demolishing the authority and originality of the artworks.51 What was lost in this process was called “aura” by Benjamin.52 He explained ‘aura’ in Central Park, “as a projection of social experience of people
49 R Barthes, Akarui Heya (Camera lucida: reflections on photography), trans. H Hanawa, 10th ed. 2010, Japan, Misuzu Shobo, 1981, p. 10-11.
50 ibid., p. 9.
51 W Benjamin, Fukusei Gijyutsu no Jidai ni okeru Geijyutsusakuhin 1936 (The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction) in Fukusei Gijyutsu Jidai No Geijyutsu , K Sasaki (ed), trans. Orion Press, Tokyo, 7th ed., Japan, Shobun-sha publisher, 2009, p. 14-15.
52 ibid., p. 14-15. 18 onto nature: the gaze is returned”.53 Furthermore, there exists an internal expectation to have the gaze returned.54 When ”the gaze is returned” it becomes a fulfilling experience for the aura.55
The reprint-able medium of photography has not only one original, but could have many. The line in-between original and copy has faded. Original artworks and artefacts carry an aura that has a history of many human eyes looking at them (the gaze), which become interwoven with the artworks.56 Whereas Benjamin said “what was inevitably felt to be inhuman … in daguerreotypy was the looking into the camera, since the camera records our likeness without returning our gaze.”57 Because we were not able to exchange the gaze with the camera eye, it lead to the disappearance of the aura in its use of the machine. Sontag claimed that “the objects that are photographs not only proliferate in a way that paintings don’t but are, in a certain sense, aesthetically indestructible.”58 Sontag explained that Leonard's painting “Last Supper”, in the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, has become unattractive with time, compared with discoloured, muddied, cracked and blistered old photographs, which become more attractive with the passing of time.59 Aura could be slowly added on to photographs like the Japanese “sabi”, which is finding the aesthetic in transience. Benjamin explained aura in Little History of
53 W Benjamin, Central Park, in New German Critique, vol. no. 34, 1985, 3258,
54 ibid., p. 41.
55 M Jomaru, Walter Benjamins theory of photography: What is the actuality of photographs?[in Japanese], in Aesthetics, vol. 54(4), 2004, 2841,
56 ibid., p. 31.
57 W Benjamin, On Some Motifs in Baudelaire in Selected Writings, United States, Harvard University Press, 2002, p.338.
58 S Sontag, On Photography, New York, RosettaBooks, 2005, P.62.
59 S Sontag, Shashin ron (On photography), trans. K Kondo, Japan, Shobunsha Pty., Ltd., 1977, p. 87. 19 Photography and that aura is paradoxical, “a strange weave of space and time: the unique appearance or semblance of distance, not matter how close it may be”.60 Even though the aura of original artwork is being lost in the age of advanced technology in the process of creating reproductions of original artworks,61 photography retains a unique temporal-spatiality that could conceivably RETURN THE gaze. Photography is an imprecise medium: the question of what is original or a copy, the confusion of time and space, the mixture of reality and unreality, and mechanical devices with no gaze to return, means loss of aura. The digital age created a separation of the image itself from the photographs, since printed photographs held in albums have now become a digital file in a computer or cloud.
Ambiguity of original and copy has increased since the invention of photography, as well as the ambiguous meaning of photographic medium and the image itself. In the history of photography, famous images have been duplicated many times in different printed or digital media, and images themselves began to possess a history and an authority within our subconscious mind. Famous photographic images like Robert Doisneau’s “The Kiss” and Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “Behind Saint-Lazare Station” are everywhere in every medium.62 Although each individual presentation and its surrounding circumstances might be different, the image itself could stay in our memories separated from the medium of photography. Photographs are a confusing medium in which to find the location of the original aura in the artwork. Benjamin mentioned that the early development of photography had an aura around a subject, needing a long shutter speed to create a portrait.63 So perhaps an aura could exist in a photographic image, and its emergence facilitated when
60 W Benjamin, ‘Little History of Photography’ in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 2: Part 1: 1927-1930, MW Jennings & H Eiland (eds), 1st ed., England, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999. p. 518.
61 Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, op. cit., p.14.
62 Image list, 4 and 5.
63 Benjamin, Little History of Photography, op. cit., p. 72. 20 people’s gaze is bestowed on the subject and the gaze is returned. In the digital age, Doisneau or Cartier-Bresson’s photographic images have been gazed upon by many people in different situations. If we separate the immateriality and materiality of the photographs, the immaterial image itself has gathered people’s gaze over time.
Since we do not print photographs anymore in our digital age, images are stored as digital files, which makes it hard to determine if the photograph is material or if the subject matter could be separated from the photograph. When it is material in an original artwork, the aura is in or surrounding the material or object, but when the image itself has become immaterial, then I think the aura is in our subconscious minds. The image has been walking alone in the digital world. Generally, photographs are slowly taking over our memories, which are stored in an external hard drive rather than our brain where we store photographic images. However, it can be said that immateriality of the photographs were already there in the beginning of the development of photography.
The characteristics of photography, which mirrored reality was appealing to people in the 19th century, and portraits of the deceased, know at the time as ‘Post-Mortem’ photography was popular when photography was first invented.64 People who could not commission their own portrait paintings due to its expense could have portrait photographs taken cheaply and quickly.65 Sontag said that photographs evoke death of the subject66 , but it also evokes death because of the history of photography. Post-mortem photography functioned as Katami of loved ones. The grief and the non-acceptance of reality by our minds were kept within the time and space of reality held by the photograph that
64 J Ruby, Post-Mortem portraiture in America, in History of Photography, vol. 8, 1984, 201 222,
65 H Ennis, Death and Digital Photography, in Cultural Studies Review, vol. 17, 2011,
66 Sontag, op. cit., p. 23. 21 retained a unique temporal-spatiality. In the 19th century, post-mortem portrait could have been the only photograph of the deceased that had been taken.67
In the mid to late 19th century, post-mortem photography was adopted in Australia, and its practice made a compelling return in the 1980s with the rise of HIV/AIDS and the documentation of this unknown disease.68 Emergence of digital photography and mobile phone cameras in last decade made it possible for people to take photographs of loved ones on their death-bed.69 The ubiquity of the digital age changed the cultural perspective of photography. Ennis said that “ Digital technologies offer a new, immaterial realm with expanded options not only for privacy, but secrecy as well.”70 Confidentiality points to our internal understanding of photography in the digital age, when the image itself is immaterial as a digital file, kept and archived digitally and archived in our subconscious minds. History tells us that we are always oscillating in the ‘between-ness’ of Katami’s immateriality and materiality when we lose our loved ones. Time and space is a key to understanding the deeper meaning of photography.
The time embedded in photography differs to our sense of time, since photographs are always viewed by human beings and are categorised by us. Photographs are often understood as evidence of reality, but the photographs are not a slice of real time. It might be a slice of time physically, but it is different to our reality. Suzuki explained that if we do not see photographs as a facultative snapshot or artwork, then photographic images do not belong to the
67 Ennis, op. cit., p. 132.
68 ibid., p. 135.
69 ibid., p. 139.
70 ibid., p. 144. 22 eternity of time, but are separated by the viewer’s individual sense of time.71 When Imahashi questioned 'if photographs recreate reality', she suggested that the photograph is a 'selective art', and explained how photographs are selected, cropped, colour balanced and exposure corrected which tends to manipulate and to change reality.72 Manipulation occurs in order to show reality in a way that can match the story that come with the photographs or to bring forth the photographer's intention. More recently, technology can merge multiple images into one photograph to create even more artificial realities. Sontag said a photograph was an contrived reality as well as sign of absence.73 In every way, there is evidence that photograph is not a slice of real time. Photographs are one of our visual perceptions. The invention of photography is not only a progress of optical technology, but also the invention of visual styling, which affects our perceptual experience.74 Even though a photograph is not a slice of time/realtime, we experience the perception of a subjects point in time and space. As Barthes said, photographs remind us the subject was there.75 Sontag argued that photographs evoke death, because once a person is photographed, the person's time and age stops there in the photograph, whereas the person's life does not.76 It also suggests that no living being is eternal. So the photograph’s reality is not the same as our reality, but there are some aspects of reality that resonates with us, such as the subject, who was once in the past and in some point of space. However, the photographer’s point of view might be more complex since a photographer has experienced time and space mediated through the lens employed to take the photograph.
71 M Suzuki, Taikutsu dakara koso Kandouteki na Shashin to Deau tameni in Shashin to Bungaku (Photography and Litirliture), M Tsukamoto (ed), Japan, Heibon-sha, 2013, p. 129. (note: the title of essay can be translated as To encounter the thrilled photographs, because of boredom)
72 E Imahashi, Photo Literacy, Japan, Chuokoron-Shinsya Inc., 2008, p.30
73 Sontag, Shashin ron (On photography), op. cit., p. 23.
74 Jomaru, op. cit., p. 28.
75 Barthes, op. cit., p. 9.
76 Sontag, op. cit., p. 23. 23 Having been a professional photographer, I have a camera’s eye and human eyes at the same time, perpetually, and taking photographs is my connection to aesthetics. Of course there are huge differences between human eyes and the camera’s eye, even if I close one eye to look at a subject that I am going to photograph. Our brain is more flexible than the camera eye. The development of technology allowed us to just press a button to take technically well exposed photographs, but even so the camera’s processor cannot think like a human brain. Although a camera can make independent adjustments to take photographs, it does not take them as we might have imagined. Recently, photographs are overwhelming us, not only through advertising and magazines, but also through social media and the abundance of visual information on the internet. Our brain is influenced by how the camera’s software thinks, even though we created the camera. Photographs look like reality, but not the same reality as seen by human eyes, especially because our eyes can see three- dimensional space as opposed to the camera’s two-dimensional eyes. Learning photography helped me understand how camera eyes actually see.
When I was an assistant photographer, my mentor told me to capture the air (atmosphere) in my photographs. A photographer creates 3D images into 2D, which means 3D space and time is squeezed into 2D images. My mentor told me to look carefully when I am taking photographs, to not only look at the subject, but to look at the surroundings and the whole frame from corner to corner to see the ether. Photographers look though the viewfinder, which is already a 2D image on the finder glass, and from this 2D image, capture the mood, the air, and the time. All our intended calculations as well as accidents are transformed by the camera mechanically, making it a collaboration of human perception and machine.
Our efforts to capture how nature and our perception function with 2D images allow us to capture only a portion of the ‘between-ness’. This raises the question of how much reality photographs are able to capture and where the
24 'between-ness' (the air) of the resulting photographs lies. The air (atmosphere) is captured by using contrast, composition, lighting, the subject's acknowledgement of the mutual gaze, and nature's magic, that is capturing the air/seeing the ether, all of which I learned through working as a photographer. However, I would like to include my acknowledgement, my feelings, and my thankfulness to the subject as part of the outcome of this research. This outcome is not only the message I have for viewers or my intentions for the photograph. However the photographer’s emotions and connectedness to the subject are often veiled behind the subject of the photograph. The question is, how to reveal them through a greater understanding of ‘between-ness’?
2.2 Towards ‘between-ness’
Since I realised photographs do not encapsulate my memories, emotions and relationships with the subject (in this research case, Katami), but rather are veiled beneath the subject of the photograph, I needed to add my 'between- ness' to the photograph, that is the space between the subject and myself. Merleau-Ponty remarked that a photograph opened a slice of time and destroyed the passage of time, 77 whereas a painting portrays ‘the overlapping, the “metamorphosis” of time, … Painting searches not for the outside of the movement but for its secret ciphers.’78 In my practice, the secret of our emotions for the subject are added to my painting layers of translucent and thin reality onto photographs. Use of colour for Cezanne was not an Impressionist’s treatment of colour where a subject is empowered by reflection or something is lost in the relationship in between atmospheric air and other ‘things’, but the
77 M Merleau-Ponty, Me to Seishin (In Praise of Philosophy), trans. S Takiura and G Kida, Japan, Msuzu Books Pty., Ltd., 1991, p. 294.
78 M Merleau-Ponty, ‘Eye and Mind’ in The Merleau-Ponty Reader, L Lawlor & T Toadvine (eds), US, Northwestern University Press, 2007 p. 374. "25 subject subtly illuminating from within, luminous rays emanating from subject, and in consequence, subject rise from materiality, hardness, and with atmosphere of it own.79 Cezanne’s depiction was that colour comes into existence by means of the subject’s configuration.80 Colour theory might be dependent on culture, history or how each person experiences their life, but touching the human soul is a universal phenomenon despite any cultural, historical or personal differences. The importance of colour is tangible here as it exists in ‘between-ness’ and directly talks to our subconscious minds. The physical action of using paint and colour is also part of the research which explores ‘between-ness’. Merleau-Ponty claimed that “It is clear from his(Cezanne’s) conversations with Emile Bernard that Cezanne was always seeking to avoid the ready-made alternatives suggested to him: sensation versus judgment; the painter who sees against (versus) the painter who thinks; nature versus composition; primitivism as opposed to tradition.”81 That is why his paintings did not deny science or tradition82 and it could be that Cezanne was different to other impressionists. His constant challenge of binary modes may have resulted in his colour and form, which emerged from this ‘between- ness’. The aesthetic found from ‘between-ness’ could be part of a universal aesthetic.
Burke explained the beauty of colour in his book ‘Philosophical Enquiry Into The Origin of our Ideas of Sublime and Beautiful’ “First, the colours of beautiful bodies must not be dusky or muddy, but clean and fair. Secondly, they must not be of the strongest kind. Those
79 M Merleau-Ponty, Imi to Muimi (Sense and Non-sense), trans. T Eito, Japan, Kokubunsha, 1970, p. 19-20.
80 Merleau-Ponty, Chikaku no Tetsugaku (Causeries 1948), op. cit., p. 126.
81 M Merleau-Ponty, Sense and Nonsense, United States, Northwestern University Press,U.S., 1964. p. 13.
82 Merleau-Ponty, Imi to Muimi (Sense and Non-sense), op. cit.,., p. 28. 26 which seem most appropriated to beauty, and milder of every sort; light greens; soft blues; weak whites; pink reds; and violets.”83
This approach is different to Japanese aesthetics as dull colours are found within the Japanese aesthetic. Cultural or historical differences affect what is beautiful and what is sublime or spiritual. Tanizaki explains our (oriental) beauty is not embodied within an object itself, but is in the shadow, light and darkness that are created between objects.84 Without the influence of shadow, there would not be beauty.
It seems that cultural differences create different understandings of the aesthetics of colour, but including ‘between-ness’ and aura would result in the universal aesthetic similar to Senju’s explanations, mentioned earlier. I intend to reach the aesthetic which Tanizaki explained: light, darkness and in between. On my photographs, colour and form layers are added as my perception and connectedness with time and space as a thin layer of photographic reality, which would give expression to the ‘between-ness’ of Katami and its immateriality. My work will be placed within the context of the contemporary art world since the concept of ‘between-ness’ is referenced by other contemporary artists.
3. The aesthetic of ‘between-ness’
3.1 The hidden and open concept of ‘awareness of between-ness’
Evidence of ‘between-ness’ can be found in the art world, especially in the works of Japanese contemporary artists.
83 E Burke, A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful, 1759, England, Scolar Press Limited, 1970, p. 220.
84 J Tanizaki, In Ei Rei San (In Praise of Shadows), 19th ed., Japan, Chukoron-Shinsha Inc., 2010, p. 48. 27 The Japanese contemporary artist Hiroshi Senju uses traditional Japanese style painting as his medium, and one of his series “Flat Water”85 has an open/hidden concept of ‘between-ness’. Senju encountered this motif when he was traveling in Hawaii, visiting the Kilauea Volcano, while he was searching for new motifs to express the passing of time86 . “Flat Water” is painted with crushed natural mineral pigment mixed with a natural adhesive (nikawa- animal glue) onto Japanese paper (washi), which is a Japanese style painting (nihonga). In the work, he left the space normally occupied by water and cloudy sky blank, which relates to the Japanese aesthetic of discovering the universe through negative space.87 His main motif, water, is left blank, showing transcendence of time and space spanning 4.6 billion years.88 Leaving bare paper/negative space for the main motif “Flat Water” was the way in which Senju successfully expressed the passage of time from time immemorial to the present day as ‘between-ness’. He said that negative space was cosmic space, and this weight of negative space transformed spatial concepts for Western people.89 The Japanese concept of negative space (yohaku) is not just unoccupied space. It is a substantial, imaginable and creative space.90 Senju noted that it was through his work that Western people accepted and understood the ambiguity of Japanese culture, which is normally difficult to understand.91 His creation of ‘between-ness’, through the passage of 4.6 billion years, water and cloud, insinuated the creation of life and the universe” 92 which transcended cultural differences or international boundaries. He used Japanese culture and Japanese style
85 Image list, 6.
86 Senju, E wo Kaku Yorokobi, op. cit., p.115-116.
87 ibid., p.119-120.
88 Senju, Bi ha Toki wo Koeru, op. cit., p. 95-98.
89 ibid., p. 98-99.
90 Pilgrim, op. cit., p. 259.
91 Senju, Bi ha Toki wo Koeru, op. cit., p. 99.
92 ibid., p. 95-98. 28 painting to disclose and reflect the true beauty of the colours in white and black, which were recognised as colour only with difficulty by Western people.93 It could be said that his work was successful in his expression of ‘between-ness’ and as it was understood by people from other cultures. Japanese culture being accepted in contemporary art without reference to race or culture, is to say that aesthetics has a universal language. The awareness of ‘between-ness’ is here in between time and space. Senju beautifully created and showed the ‘between- ness’ in his work “Flat Water”.
Another Japanese contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto uses photography as his medium in his theatre series. He photographed 20s to 30s Art Deco movie theatres94 and 50s to 60s drive-in-theatres, which evoked forgotten times, but his objective in this series of works was to capture the passing of time.95 His theatre series used long exposures to create negative space, which is the opposite of Senju’s approach. The medium of photography is opposite to painting. When the layers of colours are applied onto paintings, they will eventually become black, but when the layers of light are applied to photograph film or sensor, the results become white. Therefore using light to create images works in an opposite way to that of using paint. Sugimoto’s theatre works captured an entire movie within one photograph.96 Clearly, the screen part of the photograph was exposed for too long, so it became white in the photograph. Here is the negative space or yohaku. Creating negative space/yohaku shows the passing of time. As Spector said, “It is the gleaming white screen, the aggregate image of the film in its entirety, which illuminates the architecture of the theatre, allowing structural details otherwise invisible during a movie to remain conspicuous.”97 Sugimoto captured
93 ibid., p. 98.
94 Image list, 7.
95 N Spector, Sugimoto portraits, New York, United States, Guggenheim Museum, 2000, p. 14-15.
96 ibid., p. 15.
97 ibid., p. 14. 29 not only passing of time but also the invisible structure of theatre, which created the meaning of the relationships between visible and invisible in this series. In Sugimoto’s case, the light through the camera lens reached the film and entire movies reached the film, but they annihilated each other and negative space/ yohaku was left behind with exposed surroundings of the theatre series. He captured time, and he also portrayed the ‘between-ness’ as in the time captured between the visible and invisible in this series of works. Merleau-Ponty said in The Visible and the Invisible that to understand visualisation and its awareness was to temporarily pause them.98 Sugimoto has captured time as well as paused time. The medium of photography conceives complex temporal-spatial relationships, which Sugimoto took advantage of by capturing its ‘between- ness’.
Another Japanese contemporary artist, Tatsuo Miyajima expresses ‘between- ness’ by using contemporary medium of numbered luminous LEDs. His installation of repeating endless LED numbers99 , represented the continuous chain of life.100 His motto of creating art is “keep changing: connect with everything: continue forever.”101 The passage of time does not prevent the flow of moment to moment, but it is a flow of connections. It could be said that his work describes ‘between-ness’ as a continuous flow of time and space, endlessly changing and reflecting the inter-connectedness of all. Endlessly changing luminous numbers are a fusion of the reality of countable mathematical numbers and their spiritual or divine nature. Pilgrim suggested that “ma constitutes a ‘between world’ as a particular sensitivity and atmosphere that arises when one empties the self (and subject/object distinctions) into the interstices of being. This world is at once temporal and spatial, aesthetic
98 Merleau-Ponty, Mierumono Mienaimono (The Visible and the Invisible), op. cit., p. 56.
99 Image list, 8.
100 F Meschede, E Blume & F Ullrich, Tatsuo Miyajima: Time Train, Germany, Kerber Verlag, 2009, p. 9.
101 ibid., p. 20. 30 (poetic) and religious (spiritual).”102 Miyajima’s endless numbers correspond to Pilgrim’s explanation of “ma” which is “aesthetic and religious, temporal and spatial”. All three Japanese contemporary artists’ works have open or hidden concepts of being aware of ‘between-ness’.
Lastly, my previous work “Awareness of Between-ness: Tree and Self”103 also stemmed from the concept of being aware of ‘between-ness’. This project was about street trees and myself, expressing, visualising and becoming aware of ‘between-ness’. This was done through exploring the process and depicting that which lay between the street trees and my emotions and memories. Street trees have strength whatever their circumstances or the environment they might be in. They are living in many shapes and achieve amazing ways to reaffirm living simply as is. They teach me eloquence, bravery, that which is admirable and the nature of transience from my childhood. I made 1.5 - 2 meter circular mixed media of photographs and paintings on canvases, which were lit from the inside to create a forest of street trees. This space and time became my ‘between- ness’. This project represented my sense of gratitude to the street trees and a way to show that I was aware of what is in between the trees, myself and between the viewers in the hope they start their own search of ‘between-ness’. Although I exhibited and completed my honours research, this project is a life long project for me and when I encounter trees that amaze me or impart strength, I continue to show respect by creating artworks honouring them.
3.2 The art of ‘between-ness’
My research found a direction to recreate this invisible subject ‘between-ness’ and make it visible. The method of creating ‘between-ness’ within my project is the layering of photography and painting in mixed media installations. My ‘between-ness’ looks at the transformation of immaterial to material such as mechanical photography used as material and emotional colour and form as
102 Pilgrim, op. cit., p. 268.
103 Image list, 9. 31 immaterial. In other words, photographs are used as a means of distorting memory and painting as a means of drawing out intuitive memory.
In my master’s research, exploring the in between of immateriality and materiality, the material/Katami is a thing that was once a possession of the deceased as explained earlier. I asked my relatives, family and friends to show me a Katami that they had kept as a memento of the deceased. I have also included my own objects, which had become Katami since the persons who gave me these objects had passed away. My own Katami are included so I can learn how to visualise the ‘between-ness’ of materials (katami) and immaterial (emotion, memories, history and life and death), and to understand and express the interconnectedness of the material and immaterial. I hoped to understand that which is not ‘between-ness’, and that which is interconnectedness by drawing invisible subjects into visible art forms. The project aimed to communicate with and to honour the deceased, to appreciate the life of the deceased, and to represent the visualisation of the ‘between-ness’, which consists of balance and interconnectedness with those of us left behind.
Photography was an important part of the process by which I could express and discover the reality of Katami/materials.104 My method has been to place thin layers of transparent photographic images onto supporting materials, which created a separation between the photograph and the reality of the image. I wanted to keep the pure nature of photography, whilst controlling how much of the image was to appear. I waited for some accident, reflection, awareness to evolve during the transfer process. For example, some transfers did not stick well or some strange lines appeared in the course of transferring photographs. Personally, I am obsessed with the process of peeling and revealing the images, that is the slow appearing of fragile and delicate images.105 I was revealing what was underneath the photograph as an object, the surface of the photographs, or I should say, revealing time and space. As Roland Barthes said
104 Image list, 10.
105 Image list, 11. 32 ‘once it was there’, from the back of the photograph to reach the same reality as I was experiencing with the subject. It is not bringing the reality of photographs into a painting, but rather bringing paint/colour into the photographs to create emotion with and connection to the subject. The subsequent scraping, erasing rubbing the image to get underneath of the object of the photograph separates the subject and some reality of the subject. Then the ambiguous nature of the image relates to wabi sabi. The the scrubbed photographs begin to disappear and the ‘between-ness’ is discovered through the photograph of time and space.
Layers of colours and forms were applied to the photographs, with the intention of re-creating the space for emotions, relationships, and histories that exist in between the deceased and Katami’s owner. These layers of colours and forms for me were the recreation of my emotions that spread into the ‘between-ness’. I painted with transparent colour washes, which when repeated many times created subtle shifts in colour, a process not unlike Tanizaki’s explanation of objects well-thumbed and coloured to capture a sense of Japanese aesthetics and colour.106 I applied many layers of paint to veil the common photograph’s hypostasis.107 Barthes argues that photography’s hypostasis is difficult to separate from its subject and its image, which means that the subject speaks too much about an image with the result that the relationship between purity of image as art and its subject creates confusion.108 Consequently, I left some aspects of the Katami out of the layers of photographs, and the colour/form layers, this adding to my vision of ‘between-ness’. Colour is treated in these images as a language of emotion that is inexplicable in words. Adding layers of colour to create a visual and alchemy-like relationship uses colour as a metaphor for sabi/rusting memories.
I have trapped this invisible subject that lies in the unknown dimension into a
106 Tanizaki, op. cit., p.22-23.
107 Image list, 12.
108 Barthes, op. cit., p. 11. 33 two-dimensional image, and experimented with depth and experienced space to create an illusion within two-dimensional images. The Japanese use Chinese characters, and the meaning lies in the character. “Ma” comes from two characters, which mean gate and sun (or moon in its ancient form), held together by the sun in the middle of the gate.109 Thus is “ma” created. “Ma” is an imaginative space and time. Pilgrim explained, “Like the character for “ma” itself ... the meaning of “ma” in many of arts affirms the power, interest, depth or profundity that shines through the gaps, cracks and intervals in space and time.”110 The word is written in the two-dimensional world, though the meaning of the characters’ images suggest the sublime, that the gate is holding the sun or the sun is shining behind the open gate. There is a suggestion of immateriality within the word.
Like the symbolism of language, my work also captures a similar state, where the two-dimensional can act as a doorway to a state of “in-between-ness”. The meaning of the word ma in the context of a two-dimensional image has a feeling of light shining through which could suggest the immaterial/invisible in a material/visible world. My work is lit from behind so the condensed layers of photographs, colour and form could shine through all the layers for the viewers.111 The light shining through revealed my interpretation of ‘between- ness’. Although this light was subtle and ambiguous, the lighting is important since light itself is invisible without something to shed its light upon. Also light is often referred to as divine, relating to a dimension or a state, which is the subject of ‘between-ness’: the unknowable.
I have been exploring and experimenting on my ‘between-ness’ in the process of photo-transfer, scraping photographs, introducing transparent colours and forms, and a variety of materials. By creating an installation space, and the time
109 Groom, op. cit.,
110 Pilgrim, op. cit., p. 261
111 Image list, 13. 34 for the viewers to walk around, and by showing my awareness of ‘between- ness’ in between Katami and the immaterial, I hoped to inspire the viewers to contemplate their own ‘between-ness’.
4. Conclusion
Katami has materiality and immateriality, embodying important messages the deceased left for us. Each individual has different ways of having relationships, memories, and histories of the deceased. Even without physical contact with our loved ones, we still learn from them as well as from our own memories of them. Our loved one’s life journey might have ended but we have our memories of them, which throughout our own life journey continue to give us something to learn from.
My obsession of ‘between-ness’ has lead my research into Katami’s materiality and immateriality. The ‘between-ness’ is also revealed in being Australian and Japanese that is reflected in creating artworks, which for me is to be more aware of the spaces in between. My research into in between immateriality and materiality endeavoured to understand the potential of objects’ to transcend space which leads us to realise how important is to be aware of ‘between-ness’. My research resulted in a greater personal understanding of my photography and the photographs’ ability to reveal more emotions, colour and time existing in the space between. In turn that led me to use the photographs’ partial reality to find materiality and colour/form to find the immateriality of the Katami. Furthermore, exploration of my own heritage to touch upon the aesthetic concept of wabi sabi to re-create the transience of life and death resulted in representing time/space/‘between-ness’ by using light and darkness in order to honour and to appreciate the life of the deceased.
The concept of being aware of ‘between-ness’ has been used by many other artists, but to draw an attention to the importance of ‘awareness of between-
35 ness’ led me to discover a number of immaterial concepts in the objects. Examples covered myself as ‘between-ness’; the hidden reality of photography; the importance of understanding one’s own heritage; and the methodology and concept behind photography/painting and light installations. The unique expression and visualisation of ‘between-ness’ is individualised, but to draw attention to ‘between-ness’ acknowledges the honour of a deceased’ life, what they are still teaching us and an understanding of the self. My two parallel worlds of death and life of the deceased are merged into one through this visualisation of the ‘between-ness’ process.
The exploration of Katami, as the immateriality and materiality of ‘between-ness’ was brought together in my professional practice. The coalescence of the ‘between-ness’ onto one surface created a compression of the physical space. ‘Between-ness’ of the Katami (the material) and our perception (immaterial) lay in between space and time. Creating artworks as forms of expression is to learn and research the self. Since we all have a different fingerprint or DNA, we all have our own individual way of express ourselves, thus my result is one of many. However, I will keep drawing attention to ‘between-ness’ through my own art expression. My future research will investigate what lies in between the brain and self, the journey of what is real and who I am. Insight is the key to become aware of the ‘between-ness’ and research will never end, because I believe the concept of being aware of ‘between-ness’ is a key to universal aesthetics.
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40 6. Images List of Images:
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© Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
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The image has been removed for Copyright ristriction.
http://www.scaithebathhouse.com/en/artists/tatsuo_miyajima/
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46 7. Appendices Appendices:
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49 6. Final MFA exhibition documentation at AD Space, UNSW Art & Design, Sydney on 26th of May till 29th of May 2015. 1.
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