120 x 180 cm
Lieko Shiga’s photographs appear like dreamscapes. They gain much of their visual power from the unusual interplay between light and color, and the way in which her motifs often seem to defy physical laws such as gravity. She often photographs nocturnal landscapes that are both enchanted and haunted, invoking an emotionally and psychologically complex, contemporary inner landscape, as well as the ancient relations between mysticism, spirituality, and folklore, specifically invoking Japanese traditions and beliefs, while at the same time transforming them. The series Rasen Kaigan was created together with residents of the coastal town Kitakami in Japan’s Tohoku region. This area was severely affected by the tsunami in 2011. Over the course of four years, Shiga acted as the city’s official photographer. The works in this series do not portray the disaster in any way, but rather explore a different kind of reality, in which the present exists only in dialogue with the past and with the spirits of the land. Unlike many other contemporary photographers, Shiga captures invisible realities while at the same time invoking the artistic legacies of Surrealism, Land art, sculpture, and experimental film. Her photos also recall earlier works such as Masatoshi Naito’s photographs of Japanese folklore. Shiga depicts the contemporaneous reality of the modern and the non-modern, and gives visual expression to this tense and complex condition, while also making us feel, while looking at her images, that we, as subjects of modernity, stand on unstable and, ultimately, haunted ground.
Based on an instinctive feeling of unease with the convenience and automation of daily life, Lieko Shiga has developed an artistic approach that links questions about the nature of the photographic medium with fundamental questions about life and the means of expressing oneself. The artist’s photographs integrate her personal experiences with grander mythologies turning them into surreal and fantastical scenarios. She also introduces streaks of light and energy trails to the surface of her images, facilitating and revealing an even greater intrusion by the photographer. In the artist’s recent works, the documentary and the staged photography is actively combined in a very expressive mode, and she deploys technical tricks which often result in uncanny spiritual images. Though the works often have a haunting presence, the images reflect recent catastrophic experiences in Japanese society. There is a unique enchantment in her works, resonating with an unruly native spirituality, mysticism, and folklore, especially invoking Japanese traditions and beliefs, while transforming them at the same time.
To the Cardinal Gods: Central Axial Consecration (Site 6) is from a 2017 series made by Ren Zi during a residency in the Arctic Circle...
Artists Install AR Pig on UK buildings exposing links to harmful industrial food system - FAD Magazine Skip to content By Mark Westall • 29 November 2023 Share — A virtual, female pig has appeared on top of Barclays’ Canary Wharf HQ, two Tesco stores in London and Liverpool, DEFRA and other locations in a new experimental augmented reality (AR) app created by artists, Naho Matsuda and collective A Drift of Us...
How LGBTQ+ Hip-Hop Artists Found Their Voices and Changed Culture | KQED Skip to Nav Skip to Main Skip to Footer That's My Word How LGBTQ+ Hip-Hop Artists Found Their Voices and Changed Culture Nastia Voynovskaya Dec 6 Save Article Save Article Failed to save article Please try again Facebook Share-FB Twitter Share-Twitter Email Share-Email Copy Link Copy Link Tupac, Queen Latifah and Page Hodel at Hodel's LGBTQ+ party, The Box, in the early '90s...
Ana Vaz describes her film É Noite na América (It is Night in America) as an eco-terror tale, freely inspired by A cosmopolitics of animals by Brazilian philosopher Juliana Fausto; in which she investigates the political life of non-human beings and questions the modern idea of the exceptionality of the human species...
M1 Open Stage + DiverCity - Contact Contemporary Dance Festival Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles June 27, 2018 This year, with an increased number of international programme collaborators, M1 Open Stage features innovative and exhilarating works by a diverse range of dance artists over two nights...
Crafted Elegance: Hendrick’s Gin And Artist Boris De Beijer Unveil Limited Edition Cocktail Glasses - IGNANT Words: IGNANT magazine Photographer: Clemens Poloczek Name Boris De Beijer Images Clemens Poloczek Words IGNANT magazine Hendrick’s Gin has joined forces with artist and glassblower Boris de Beijer for an exclusive partnership as part of this year’s festive campaign...
Happy Lunar New Year! 5 Things to Know About the Year of the Dragon | KQED Skip to Nav Skip to Main Skip to Footer upper waypoint Arts & Culture Happy Lunar New Year! 5 Things to Know About the Year of the Dragon Rae Alexandra Feb 9 Save Article Save Article Failed to save article Please try again Email The Year of the Dragon begins is upon us...