woman with blue eyes (diptych) from the series The Way I See, 2013, Japanese sumi ink and acrylic © Hideyuki Sobue
Artist talkThursday 21 November 2013
6:00pm – 7:00pm
The Way I See - Beyond Portraiture by Hideyuki Sobue
ドリンクレセプション 7:00pm – 8:00pm
13/14 Cornwall Terrace, London, NW14QP
The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation 主催
This talk explored the themes surrounding Hideyuki Sobue’s exhibition The Way I See at the Daiwa Foundation Japan House Gallery, where he discussed his artistic approach to the human cognitive process and latest attempt to push the boundaries of contemporary portraiture.
Hideyuki Sobue is a Japanese artist living and working in the Lake District, where this project is based. The exhibition, supported by Arts Council England, embodies a series of portraits of people he has come to know personally, with each work designed to be exhibited in diptychs: one half featuring the portrait, the other a carpet of fallen leaves observed in the area. The leaves symbolise the vast majority of people, often neglected, who have never been – and will never be – the subject of a portrait and thus the works become a metaphoric juxtaposition. Fallen leaves show the many dangers that face us at many levels, and Sobue sees them as a metaphor for the frailty of human existence, as well as indicating the “autumn” of civilisation. In this way, he attempts to complete the portrait series from a very personal and microscopic perspective through to a macroscopic and broad perspective.
During the talk, Sobue explained how he came to complete the project in the unique brush hatching technique he has created and developed over the past decade, using Japanese sumi ink and acrylic inspired by the classic method of disegno, established in the Florentine School during the Renaissance, in combination with neurological studies, which show that the human visual brain perceives objects predominantly by oriented lines. With this technique, he attempted to embody how humans see when exploring the uniqueness of humanity with their creativity, by combining artistic and cultural heritage from both East and West, ideological legacy and contemporary understanding. In addition, he held a debate about the unique relationship between painting and photography on portraiture with Shu Tomioka, a Japanese photographer based in London.
コントリビューターについて
Hideyuki Sobue
Hideyuki Sobue was born in 1965 in Aichi, Japan, and grew up in an orphanage. He graduated from Osaka University of Arts on a scholarship. Selected exhibitions include National Open Art Competition (Chichester), Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (Birmingham), 20/21 International Art Fair (London), The Lake Artists Society (Cumbria), The Verrocchio Arts Centre (Italy) and Rydal Mount (Cumbria). After being awarded thePeter Tyson Award at the Lake Artists Society (2006), Hideyuki was elected member of the society (2008) and is serving as a council member (2011-13). This art project, The Way I See, has been awarded a grant by Arts Council England (2013).
Shu Tomioka
Shu Tomioka is a Tokyo born freelance photographer and music journalist, who in 1990 moved to London where he has had a prolific career ever since. With a keen interest in British culture, his photographic portfolio includes a number of CD album covers for a range of artists including Dick Heckstall-Smith, John Lee Hooker Tribute and the Eric Clapton Tour programme. Fashion credits include Elle, Japanese GQ and Figaro MRS, amongst others. Tomioka has submitted work to Asahi Newspaper and AERA magazine as well as having travel photographs of Europe featured in JAL & SKYWARD magazines. As a music journalist, he is a regular contributor to the Japanese Player Magazine and the Japanese Record Collectors magazine where, since 1993 he has had a series of articles published entitled ‘Portraits in British Rock’.