ANTWERP.- IBASHO organizes the second solo exhibition of the young Japanese artist Yoshinori Mizutani (°1987). After the successful pop-up show in 2015 at Graanmarkt 13, Mizutani is now back in Antwerp with a solo exhibition in the gallery. The exhibition combines images from his earlier popular series Tokyo Parrots - that even made it on the clothes of fashion brand Issey Miyake - and Yusurika with two new series, Sakura and Kawau, In Sakura, Mizutani shows us an unusual and mesmerizing view on one of Japans icons, the cherry blossom. The abstract and graphic black and white photography of the Kawau - Japanese for the cormorant bird - is Mizutani’s second exploration of birds in an urban environment.
On the occasion, Dutch-born artist and landscape designer Ronald van der Hilst will create a special cherry blossom installation, that will be on view in the gallery.
Mizutani on Sakura
Cherry blossoms are so beautiful that I don’t think I’ve spent as much time looking at anything else. Facing a sakura tree, my eyes shift from one petal to another, from one flower to another until the whole picture is grasped. In Sakura, I attempt to visualise the movement of my observing eyes, and materialise the visual experience of meditating and wandering under the blooming tree. As a result, the images show that photography captures not only a specific moment, but also the passing of time.
The themes of Mizutani’s work are the everyday and the familiar. What is familiar to him, however, could be new to the viewer. It could also be revelatory or something previously overlooked.
“It is the viewers’ varied responses to and interpretations of images, which makes photography interesting.” – Yoshinori Mizutani
Mizutani on Kawau
I have a growing interest in birds inhabiting Tokyo since I completed my previous series Tokyo Parrots. Kawau, which is a Japanese term for cormorant, composes the second part of my trilogy on birds. Similar to the parakeets captured in Tokyo Parrots, Kawau has increased dramatically in number over the past decade and now their over population is causing problems to the human life as well as local ecosystem in several parts of the country. Despite their reported negative impact and reputation, it is breathtaking to watch a big flock of birds, and through my photography I want to reveal their existence, which makes our everyday urban landscape somehow surreal.
About Tokyo Parrots
Mizutani was moved by and became obsessed with the unusual population growth of lime green parrots in Tokyo. His photographs capture the strange urban landscapes and uncanny feeling created by the parrots’ presence.
On his encounter with the parrots Mizutani has commented:
‘When I first saw them I was afraid - I thought I was going to be attacked, like in Hitchcock’s “The Birds”.
The Tokyo Parrots are obvious in some ways. We would conceivably notice them ourselves were we to wander the particular streets of Tokyo they live near. But for sure we would not see them the way Yoshinori Mizutani makes us see and experience them. The photographer elevates what must be a strange spectacle in person, to bring us a different, equally strange, and compelling beautiful spectacle in the form of photographs.'
(From Tokyo Parrots, an essay on Mizutani by Jörg Colberg in FOAM Talent 2014.)
Yoshinori Mizutani’s Tokyo Parrots on Issey Miyake clothes
Yoshinori Mizutani’s series Tokyo Parrots also caught the eye of Yusuke Takahashi, the menswear designer for fashion brand Issey Miyake. He recognized a kindred spirit in Mizutani, both of them leading lights in Japan's new generation of creators, and both keen to prove that a photo's potential extends beyond a flat printed image. Mizutani's photos were transformed into wearable art and woven into high-gage, Jacquard suits and separates. Poplin and jersey shirts are printed with the vibrant images, while additional printed fabrics are transformed further by being cut into fine strips, and woven into tweed jackets, and shorts, or loose knit sweaters.
