LONDRA. “Beyond Memory” è la prima mostra personale nel Regno Unito di Tomoko Yoneda negli ultimi dieci anni e fino al 7 agosto si potrà ammirare alla Grimaldi Gavin di Albemarle Street.
Lone Deer, Sundarbans, Bangladesh, 2008
© Tomoko Yoneda . Courtesy of Grimaldi Gavin
In mostra le fotografie degli ultimi 14 anni con paesaggi e interni che sono stati contrassegnati in qualche modo dalle forze distruttive. Yoneda sceglie i suoi soggetti, dopo un’attenta ricerca. Il mare, il bosco ma anche i fiori e gli edifici abbandonati… tutti i soggetti sono stati scelti dalla fotografa per far pensare o rievocare aspetti e conflitti del ventesimo secolo a cui la Yoneda è interessata visto che da bambina era solita ascoltare i racconti della Seconda Guerra Mondiale dai suoi genitori. Nell’attualità, negli edifici di oggi, nei territori di oggi, la Yoneda rivede tratti del passato e cerca, con la fotografia, di far riflettere tra il presente e il passato.
LONDON. “Beyond Memory” is Tomoko Yoneda’s first UK solo exhibition in ten years. The exhibition will bring together photographs from the past 14 years depicting landscapes and interiors that have been marked in some way by destructive forces. Yoneda selects her subjects after careful research – the sea, the forest, flowers and derelict buildings have been chosen to illuminate aspects of twentieth century conflicts. The titles of her works provide clues to the complex and troubling narratives of the past.
In the series ‘Scene ‘ (2000 – 2007) the photograph Seascape depicts the beach at Bertigoga, Brazil, where Dr Josef Mengele drowned; Wedding shows a wedding party on the Dandong River which divides North Korea and China; and Forest portrays Delville Wood, France, the location of the Battle of the Somme in the First World War. For the series ‘Japanese House’ (2010) Yoneda photographed homes built in the capital of Taiwan, Taipei, during the Japanese occupation from 1895 to 1945. The influence of Japanese design and taste are evident in her prints titled Former House of General Wang Shu-Ming. The Japanese design references in the shoji screens and alcoves with grid-like structures are contrasted with western wallpaper and ‘Chinese’ dark red paint. The house can be seen as a site of conflicting political ideologies.
The series ‘Rivers Become Oceans’ (2008), taken in Bangladesh, alludes to the destructive force of climate change. Due to its location on the delta of three major rivers, Bangladesh is the most vulnerable of nations due to rising sea levels. In this series Yoneda has portrayed a country living amongst the echoes of a struggle for independence, on the edge of the sea and also at the edge of existence.
Former house of General Wang Shu-ming, the Chief of Staff under Chiang Kai-Shek, Cidong Street, I
2010
© Tomoko Yoneda
Other work on display in the exhibition will include the triptych Beyond Memory and Uncertainty: American B52 Returning From A Raid in Iraq. Fairford, England (2003), a reference to Yoneda’s parent’s memories of the American B29 bombers flying over Japan during the Second World War. Through this work Yoneda suggests a state of disquieting uncertainty brought about by the recent memory of war. This will be shown alongside Lovers from ‘After The Thaw’ created in post Cold War Hungary; The 50th Parallel depicting the road through Sakhalin which divided Russia and Japan from the series ‘The Island of Sakhalin’ (2013) titled after Anton Chekhov’s book of the same name, Chrysanthemums taken in Nagasaki following the Great Earthquake of 2011 and the most recent ongoing series, ‘Crystals’ (2013-).
The exhibition has been curated by Paul Wombell.
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BEYOND MEMORY
Tomoko Yoneda
12 June – 7 August 2015
Grimaldi Gavin
27 Albemarle Street
London W1S 4DW
+44 (0)20 3637 0637
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