“Reflection” is an exhibition bringing together the work of Kohei Nawa and Sue Ford. To reflect refers to an effect of light and also recalling memories.
The exhibition is held in a tunnel, which is built for snow fence, so it has some holes on the ceiling, which allows the light from the sun to come into the tunnel. The reflection is occurred only when the light is present, and this tunnel is the perfect place to feel both the light and darkness from nature. The long tunnel represents the journey and time in the life and pathway to the human sense, which relates to the ideas of Sue Ford and Kohei Nawa.
Both Sue Ford and Kohei Nawa have ‘physiological’ context in their works. Ford describes the passage of the time and how the past forms the present, and Nawa shows the sense of human and how the light reflections are related to it.
Sue Ford is an Australian photographer who is interested in time and how the past affects the present and even the future. Her series called ‘Time series’ (1974, 1982) and ‘Self-portrait’ (1960-2006) are good examples of her artworks represent the time. She considers that people lose their freshness as the time passes and to prove her idea, she created series ‘Self-portrait’ that is 47 pictures of her self-portrait, which was started in 1960 and finished in 2006. This ‘Self-portrait’ series is the reflection of her life. Ford uses photography to record her life, because she thinks camera is a spontaneous, natural and simple device and pictures can retain the memory and the audience can compare and find differences among her pictures.
Kohei Nawa is interested in the reflection of light and he notices that everything surrounding us is a combination of light reflection. He describes “uncertainties of reality between seeing and perception.” (Scribd ) Also he is aware that we can feel the touch by looking at an object. He created this series called ‘PixCell’(2002-) to show that we recognizes things by using our sense of sight. The word ‘PixCell’ is combination of ‘pixel,’ which is the digital photograph resolution and the biological ‘cell’,and he explains, “While the subject in each work connotes its own attributes such as weight, smell and color, its essence is lost or distorted through the production process in which glass, crystal and urethane coats covers its surface” (art-agenda)
Ford often employs grey scale photographs. The inks on the black and white picture disappear easily compared to colour pictures. The fading of ink represents how the people lose their freshness as the time passes. Photographs are a collection of light reflections on the surfaces of objects and this is related to Nawa’s ideas of the sense of sight. Also in the many of the photos, she stood in front of mirrors and took the relfection of herself on it like 'Self-portrait 1981' shown below.
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Self-portrait 1981
selenium toned gelatin silver print
20 x 24cm
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The light reflection creates a great contrast of black and white on Ford’s photograph and different light effect changes the tone and feeling of them. The tones of backgrounds of these two images Self-portrait 1961 and 1963 are completely opposite.
‘Self-portrait 1961’has a black background. Ford’s skin is white and bright colour and it highlights and outstands from the dark background and the outline of her face is blurrily. This rich dark tone suggests a mysterious mood.
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Self-portrait 1961
chromogenic print
26 x 19.9cm
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Self-portrait 1963
chromogenic print
20 x 20cm
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The gradation enhances the softness on Ford’s images like Self-portrait 1960 and 1974. This faint and darken gradation adds the softness, and it enhances the image of evanescent life, which is her central idea of this series.
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Self-portrait 1974
selenium toned gelatin silver print
19.9 x 18
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Self-portrait 1960
selenium toned gelatin silver print
15.3 x 24cm
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The different light reflection affects the feeling of an object in Ford’s photography and Nawa describe this in his artwork.
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| PixCell - PixCell - Wild Duck #3
mixedmedia
h: 35, w: 50, d: 53 cm 2002 |
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| PixCell -Buffalo Skull
mixedmedia
h:830 w:1130 d:700 mm 2005 |
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| PixCell-Deer#17
mixedmedia
h:200 w:170 d:150 cm 2009 |
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| PixCell-Deer#14
mixedmedia
h:101.4 w:65.5 d:48.5 cm 2009 |
The three-dimensional marbles magnify the texture of the object inside, which represent the ‘pixel’ and the different light reflections represents the ‘attributes ‘of the ‘cell’.This is obvious in 'Elk'. The texture of the stuff deer is shown clearly.
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| PixCell - Elk
mixedmedia
h: 203 w:123 d:108 cm 2008 |
The reflection on the clear marbles represents the sense of sight, and their round shapes soften the impression of the harsh far on the object he uses.
He often uses stuff animals for the object under the marbles like this work to show that we can feel the texture of the harsh far on the surface of the stuff animals by looking at them and the sense of sight affects the sense of touch.
“Reflection” has significant meaning for Ford and Nawa’s artworks. Even though, they have the same concept ‘reflection’, their focuses, the meaning of ‘reflection’ in their artworks and their way of presentations are totally different to each other; however there is a connection in their use of the light reflection. They both employ the various lighting effect on their works to explore their ideas and also they describe physiological contexts. This exhibition inspires the audience to how much light reflections we sees in our daily life and remains the important ness of the light through their senses of sight.
Bibliography
- Kohei Nawa Official website (http://www.kohei-nawa.net/index.html)
- Sue Ford Official website (http://www.sueford.com.au/HOME.html)
-GoMA.Queens land Govenment (http://qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/apt/apt6/artists/kohei_nawa)
The background image
An image of ‘light’ is used for the background for this blog, because the light must exist to create reflection and is a strong connection between Nawa and Ford’s artworks. The black background is chosen to show the contrast of the bright light and the darkness to outstand the picture of the light.
