Shizuka Yokomizo

Shizuka Yokomizo explored the phenomenon of the photographic image by looking at its different visual and non-visual spaces in its various stages of making. Her work to date has put emphasis on the conditions of producing the photograph, often effectively raising the material and temporal status of this alongside that of the image itself.

In her new work that was shown here, she takes instead the residual material of a previous project, engaging with it as a material in limbo, disconnected but not disavowed from its original conditions. The images derive from the out-takes of one of several shoots in 2008/9 when Yokomizo was involved in meeting various women in hotel rooms and photographing them in their trade as sex workers. Although an original intention and contractual aspect are still embedded in these images, they have in a sense slipped out of vigilance and are both prone to manipulation as well as having a life of their own, somewhat liberated by a minor and abstracted status. A close view of the image material revealed a toughness and vulnerability, an anonymity and personality that was vital in constructing its new visibility. The works can be seen as moments of question and pause to prompt identification, reception or consumption and a glimpse of the autonomous spaces that images inhabit.

Artist Talk: 6pm, 2 December 2014

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