Edition 2009
NAOYA HATAKEYAMA
Scales Maquettes / Light : tautology of the image
That which resists our process of cognition we call ‘reality’. We always wish to grasp the world as a whole. But the resistance of ‘reality’ is so fierce that we counter it through dividing the world into small parts, and from these we then attempt to understand the whole; however, the problem is that our time is finite. Our life is too short to examine every attempt. This is why we have invented the map, model, sign and metaphor.
According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, ‘knowledge of the whole precedes knowledge of the parts’ in small-scale models, and since this same cognitive process occurs in painting and sculpture, he continues, ‘the vast majority of works of art are small-scale models’. We should acknowledge that works of art contain an ‘economy of cognition’ for which we desperately seek in our lives.
On this point, however, photography is not as ‘economical’ as the other art forms. ‘Resisting reality’ frequently casts shadows over photographs, so that the world always appears only as a part. This, though, is also what the beauty of photography, that which other art forms cannot achieve, derives from. In fact, what is embodied in photography is not a clear ‘knowledge of the whole’, but rather, a ‘longing for the knowledge of the whole’, which is identical to the plodding process we must cope with in our real lives.
Naoya Hatakeyama, January 2009.
According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, ‘knowledge of the whole precedes knowledge of the parts’ in small-scale models, and since this same cognitive process occurs in painting and sculpture, he continues, ‘the vast majority of works of art are small-scale models’. We should acknowledge that works of art contain an ‘economy of cognition’ for which we desperately seek in our lives.
On this point, however, photography is not as ‘economical’ as the other art forms. ‘Resisting reality’ frequently casts shadows over photographs, so that the world always appears only as a part. This, though, is also what the beauty of photography, that which other art forms cannot achieve, derives from. In fact, what is embodied in photography is not a clear ‘knowledge of the whole’, but rather, a ‘longing for the knowledge of the whole’, which is identical to the plodding process we must cope with in our real lives.
Naoya Hatakeyama, January 2009.
Naoya Hatakeyma is represented by Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japon.
With the collaboration of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, for Scales series and the collaboration of the Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, for Maquettes/Light series.
With the backing of the Japan Foundation and of the Government of Quebec General Delegation, Cultural Division, Paris.
Exhibition presented at the cloître Saint-Trophime.
Naoya Hatakeyama’s works was presented at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2003.