Satoshi Fujiwara's layered close ups explore a new frontier in photographic media
Layered images of enlarged pores, animal skin and commuters provide the viewer with a Satoshi Fujiwara’s grotesque close up into our current climate. In this time of lockdown, Fujiwara’s close up unflattering shots, where the subject is unaware and has not consented to having their picture taken, take on a new meaning.
EU: SATOSHI FUJIWARA, 2017, courtesy Fondazione Prada, Armature Globale. Photo: Delfino Sisto Legnani
For someone that has not seen your work, how would you describe it? Fujiwara: Although I want to leave explaining specifically on my work to open viewers' subjective interpretation, I would be happy if people would enjoy the saturated layers in my works.
Where are you based? How does it inspire you? Fujiwara: I've been based in Berlin since 2012. Not sure how the city inspires me, but it's important to me to have a hub somewhere in central Europe because of its convenience for my creation and research.
Venus, 2017, Satoshi Fujiwara
Are you looking forward to any specific photo shoots? Fujiwara: I don't have any at the moment. I've been accumulating images to create something as my creative process needs quite a lot of pictures to combine to re/create a 'single' image.
What are you most proud of in your career to date? Fujiwara: It's still in the early process of exploring and its development. For now, I've been testing to explore the frontier of photographic media.
Are you inspired by Japanese aesthetic? How? Fujiwara: I've always been fascinated by the Western aesthetic while often being struggled with the contradiction between it and my origin. What important to me is that dare to avoid treating 'Japanese' subjects superficially so that the heterogeneous aesthetic cannot be seen in the orientalism context. I am trying to put my work on the outer sphere of the dichotomy that still divides East and West.
EU: SATOSHI FUJIWARA, 2017, courtesy Fondazione Prada, Armature Globale. Photo: Delfino Sisto Legnani
Is there anything/anywhere you would like to recommend to our readers? Fujiwara: I've been in Europe for almost eight years and am going back to Japan only sometimes, so it's a bit hard for me to give a recommendation. However, I'd like to recommend knowing about Danshi Tatekawa, a legendary rakugoka, and comedian who truly shaped my spirit in my youth. (A Rakugoka, or lone storyteller (落語家) traditionally is a type of Japanese verbal entertainment, where the comedian sits on stage and tells the audience and long and complicated story. )
Your work has been featured from 21_21 Design sight and Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto. Where can people see your work in 2020? Do you have any exhibitions lined up? Fujiwara: Since the exhibitions' press releases haven't been out yet, I cannot tell its detail for now. Still, happy to tell you that my work will be shown in four museums shows as in Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Milan, and Dubai.
You can see more of Satoshi Fujiwara’s work at http://www.satoshi-fujiwara.com/