Beginnings

I started this series when I turned 32 and was determined to focus on my artistic practice seriously. Considering it as a guidebook, I intended to create an ambiguous work, which would only suggest to the viewer, “Take a hint from the abstract visuals on display and you might find something.” I kept the meaning of the work open to interpretation and I continued photographing only the things surrounding something and without a focal point.

Experiments

I wanted to pursue a straightforward photographic expression, but I wasn’t confident. If photography has an innate capacity to touch viewers and inspire them to take action, then probably there is no need for me to seek uniqueness in my work to attract attention. However, I did not have the courage to continue doing the same thing as my contemporaries. Even with photography, I still wanted to try doing something different from what the people around me were doing. I always felt that I should never let myself be a forgotten artist.

First Exhibition

I exhibited this series at Art Center Ongoing in Kichijoji, Tokyo in July 2013. Instead of presenting the exhibition in a zine, book, or website, as I had done previously, I created several square boxes to show the photographs. On every side of the boxes, I pasted a different photograph taken at the same location and mounted the boxes several meters high in a small gallery space. As I had only worked with photography and video before and had no experience or skills in making physical objects, it was refreshing and fun to make my first three-dimensional work.

Realizations

However, the viewers’ responses were not so good. Mr. Ogawa, the director of Art Center Ongoing, told me that he didn’t understand the work at all. I also felt something was off with the installation. On the last day of egress, an idea hit me—I should install the work in the depot of the landscaping company where the photographs were taken. I transported and stacked up all the boxes on the site of the gardener’s shop, which gave me a strange sense of satisfaction. The following morning, I returned to check the work at the gardener’s shop and saw a staff member in the shop uniform standing and looking up at the piles of objects. The view reminded me of a scene from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I realized that my artwork could make a strange situation. I felt confident.