Japanese artist Toshihiro Komatsu (b. 1966) presents new works from “CT,” a series of photographs that cancel out the layers of architectural spaces. The exhibition’s title, “Mise en Abyme,” refers to a formal technique of placing a copy of an image within itself, often in a way that suggests an infinitely recurring sequence. The new works shown here take the wooden structures of Japanese architecture as his subject. They are a departure from his previous works that focused on European architecture. The artist notes: “I photograph the houses and school buildings with a digital camera as if scanning the human body with a CT scan, and reveal what exists “behind” the other side hidden by walls, barriers, and curtains as if you could see through it. Instead of physically cutting and drilling slits and holes in the actual architectural space, the work is created by using photographs taken in “front” of and “behind” the walls as layers, and the “front” wall is partially drilled through to reveal what is “behind,” creating a dazzling visual disturbance between reality and fiction. A Kyoto row house where my step-grandmother in Uzumasa lived ever since she married until she passed away at the age of 93. The birthplace of my wife in Iwakura, Kyoto, whose father was an architect. A former wooden elementary school in Niigata that was an exhibition site for the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale. An old house built approximately 130 years ago in the Shoin style in Kitahyogo, where the imperial family once stayed. The photographs provide a perspective on buildings filled with people's memories and history.”
