I can still clearly recall the day I stood in front of a rock, astounded. Its power was overwhelming and was about to take over me. It was alive. I never thought I would hold such an impression toward a rock. I was struck by another feeling as I was printing the pictures in my darkroom. Enlarging the surface of the rock made me feel like I was looking at the moon’s surface. Or better yet, I was staring at the moon’s surface itself. A rock on the Earth takes me to the moon, and then on to another place.
Like this image, everything in the universe is linked. However, it may only be that our minds are wondering from one to another between the common images of the memories and histories of the object. That is what lies under how you connect with society, how you think, how the world passes around you, how and where you live your life, who you meet, talk, and feel. Humans are lonely beings from birth, but in this image, we are connected.
I have taken “dreams(the inside, the subject)” and “rock(the outside, the object)”in my pictures to compare how the subject and the object exist. I have understood dreams to be somewhat like a complete invention, since although it is made within the self, it happens when you have no consciousness. Therefore, it was so strange that dreams seemed to be approaching me with more reality than the real world. In order to present my explanation to that queerness, I took pictures of what attracted me like a reflex movement. That was my previous collection, ‘The Exit of Dreams’.
This is my first time to produce a collection of what is outside – rocks. I aimed to capture the essence of things by choosing objects that are reversible between the memories of the subject and object. For example, I picked the 0.5billion year old piece of stratum told to be the oldest in Japan. It exists from a long, long time ago, before the first humans lived on earth. The stratum has resisted change for a long period, but when the period is long enough, it seems to connote everything.
Dazing at rock starts with a sense that everything is connected, and then invites us to the moon. You can experience that excitement like a dejavu no matter where you are. An image turns millions of times in your head until something seems to have become familiar, and you suddenly forget the days when you were lonely. Everything gets mixed in a mass, and unidentifiable. All becomes one, and one becomes all. That rock went through this billions of times, and that was what drew me to the rock. It is said that geologists learn about the Earth’s birth through the study of aerolites. This may be an example that knowing more about the outside leads to a better understanding of the inside.
The reason why I take pictures is probably due to my desire to know about the root of everything. Of course, there is always more than one essence to things, and opinions differ depending on where you stand. However, there is only one truth. Perhaps, preparation and experience is required to accept this antinomy. It seems difficult to know the root of everything in this antinomy, but I will continue to compare the inside and outside in my works, based on the belief that everything is connected.