Japanese House Series

2010 - Photography (Photography)

25.59H x 32.68W inches

Tomoko Yoneda

Yoneda’s Japanese House (2010) series of photographs depicts buildings constructed in Taiwan during the period of Japanese occupation, between 1895 and 1945. Yoneda focuses both on the original Japanese features of the houses and on details that have been altered since the end of the occupation. The yet-to-be acknowledged history of the occupation of Taiwan and other East Asian countries by Japan during World War II is subtly disclosed in these pictures. Instead of presenting monuments, the artist chooses to depict houses where the domestic lives of local Taiwanese are still unfolding today. The complexity of history is thus foregrounded by the overlapping of the everyday, the memory mixing with the remains. Former Residence of the Daughter of the Japanese Prime Minister, Kentaro Suzuki, Who Accepted the Potsdam Declaration and Full Surrender to the Allied Powers, Ending the Second World War, Qingtian Street, I depicts a dusty room with Japanese window frames but no views. Its title offers a biography of the original inhabitants and their historical role before the postwar Chinese Nationalist takeover. The wall behind the counter in Former House of General Wang Shu-ming, the Chief of Staff Under Chiang Kai-Shek, Cidong Street, I has been painted a deep red. The detailed title subtly suggests how local residents may have subsequently altered the home’s original paint colors to be more “Chinese.”

Photography is Tomoko Yoneda’s primary medium. Influenced by both journalism and archaeology, the London-based artist tries to minimize subjectivity in her work and keep her subjects as real and open as possible, leaving space for interpretation by the viewer. Often the sites she documents appears insignificant and nondescript, lacking any visual references that might trigger direct associations with historical events. Their lengthy titles, however, reveal the identities of the places by providing historical and political context. The haunted feeling generated by the emptiness of the locations evokes unsettled spirits of the past, and seems to invite a moment’s reflection.

Colors:

• occupation.n.02
• claustrophobia.n.01
• memory.n.01
• architecture.n.01
• war.n.01
• haunted.s.03
• japan
• photography
• japanese