Beyond the View
Contemporary Art OKAYAMA ２０１２ Exhibition

First, there is my photo.
Then I show it to someone and ask her/him to put it down on paper.
After that, I shoot it and turn it to a photo again.

What is shown there is an invisible view.

I think the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words."
is not always true. In the little Prince of Sain-Exupe`ry the Fox says "What is essential is invisible to the eye"
I couldn`t agree with him more.

The world is filled with "unnatural" things with innocent look.
They aren`t totally lies but have assimilated into "natural" things.
"Beyond the View", I think it means we see what the world is like with not only the eye but the mind.

I want you to imagine what are described by these passages.
I think the pictures which come to your mind are true.

I thank for being given the opportunity to create my pieces based on this theme.
I also think S.Tomo, a painter/poet for turning my photos into writing.
Katsuya Taira
The Unnatural 1 (90x120cm)
The Unnatural 1
The white lines at the parking lot have been whiter.
The signs of the shower room and dressing room have been re-designed.
The beach is ready.
Seeing a nuclear power plant over the sea.
Seeing it blurredly with rain 1km away.

Only 1km away.
After the rainy season.
Parents and kids play innocenty on the beach.
They don't know what it was like before.
To believe invisible ideals and keep believing them,
How tough we have to be.

We all know it deep down that there is a grief we can't make disappeared,
but we try to wrap the grief over and over with silk to make it fancily appeared.

Rain from the sky will make stains of this world washed out.
Such romanticism has been died out.


Inspired by the photo taken by Katsuya Taira
at Nyo.Mihama-cho,Fukui in July 2007 S.Tomo

The Unnatural 2 (90x120cm) 
 
The Unnatural 2
 I can see a battery at the beach over the sea.
Embrasures are around its wall.
They are aiming at this side that used to be in the sea then.
Now, it's reclaimed, and flowers are blooming here.


Inspired by the photo taken by Katsuya Taira
at around Nisihato-cho, Nishinomiya, Hyougo,May, 2009 S.Tomo



The Unnatural 3 (90x120cm)


 The Unnatural 3
There is a scene:
A skyscrapar and rows of old houses
Together, they are denying each other's
beanty so bedly


Inspird by the photo taken by KatsuyaTaira
at araund Isonare-cho, sumaku hyogo kobe in August, 2010 S.Tomo
 


Translated by Kazu