SHINTSUBO Kenshu “To the point of disappearing, so fine, and so subtle”（TOKYO）

Mizuma Art Gallery is pleased to announce To the point of disappearing, so fine, and so subtle, a solo exhibition by SHINTSUBO Kenshu beginning on April 19th, 2023.

 

Born in Tokyo in 1968, Shintsubo Kenshu studied photography on his own by starting out in filmmaking, and has since worked on several jobs including portraits, landscapes, and architectural photography. He is an artist who has gained a large following for his distinctive transparent visuals in his photographs. On the other hand, he has also been involved in collaborative projects with people from various different fields, such as the documentary filming in the Tohoku region and Chernobyl, Ukraine (2011-2013) conducted with the magazine “Thought Map (Shisou Chizu β)” by Genron, immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Recently, he has been expanding his range of expression by working on experiential VR installations with Ikegami Takashi, who is a researcher in complex systems science and artificial life, and with evala, who is a musician.

In parallel with his career as a photographer, he has also grasped a more flexible eye, reconsidering the subject of “landscape” and its physicality, which he had been working up until recent, while studying art. This exhibition will be a condensed version of his activities over the past several years, including several new works.

 

A bonfire that he saw in Suwa, a waterfall caused by a landslide after the earthquake in Kumamoto, the sky at nightfall and its reflection on the water, and the flickering of a fire captured by an ultra-high-speed camera called Phantom: the landscapes and subjects captured in the works in this exhibition are somehow peculiar and wear an unseenable atmosphere. For Shintsubo, it was something faint and subtle, a sensation he states, as if he was grasping at something that is physically not there.

 

Shintsubo describes his photographs as “When I encounter a subject, I feel as if I am seeing an invisible form that rises up faintly in the subjective time that is generated between me and the other side”. This may be similar to the feeling of capturing in a photograph the ephemeral and fleeting things between the present and the absent.

 

Usually, when photographing people, Shintsubo takes pictures as if he “covers” the people with the scenery in the background. This time, however, he finds a human-like presence or presence in the scenery and subjects, as well as his own consciousness, which reacts to the presence and “covers” these elements. Actually, from the photographs, we can feel the subtleties of Shintsubo’s body and senses, and the touch of “something” invisible to the eye, as he reacts to the subject.

 

Lastly, the title of this exhibition, “To the point of disappearing, so fine, and so subtle” is a phrase that came up in a dialogue with an artificial intelligence. These words, uttered from an existence different from that of a human being, seem to accurately describe Shintsubo’s photographs, albeit awkwardly. We hope you will enjoy this exhibition.

 

SHINTSUBO Kenshu

Born 1968 in Tokyo. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2020 with a PhD in oil painting. His major photo books include “Rugged TimeScape” (FOIL, 2010), “Spring Ephemeral” (FOIL, 2011), and “＼Scape” (Kadokawa Shoten, 2012), which he co-wrote with Ikegami Takashi. Related books include “Chernobyl Dark Tourism Guide: Thought Map β vol. 4-1” (Genron). Recent exhibitions include The Society for Landscape Observation and Research “Hakkoda Academy” (Aomori Contemporary Art Center) in 2022, and a solo exhibition “Oukan no Fukei” (ART DRUG CENTER, Miyagi).