Yosuke Nakagawa
《STAND! ALONE!!》 2014 Yawan-yu (Kitakyushu)
《This place was closed》2015 The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
Photo by Umezu Gen
Born in Saga Prefecture, Japan, I, NAKAGAWA Yousuke, am an artist who presents video and photographic works motivated by my daily work of recording, preserving, conserving, collecting, and delivering, and I am also organizing and curating “EDITION BOX -video works as material-,” an exhibition on the theme of instructions and certificates for born-digital works in 2020.
I moved to Toride from Kyushu when I entered university in 2001. Since then, I have been living in Toride city. My works don’t take up much space with data and photos, but I have a lot of equipment and documents, so I like Toride because I can rent a spacious house at a reasonable price.
For a while, I used to take the airplane and Shinkansen frequently with my equipment, so I am also satisfied with the transportation aspect of being able to get to Tokyo on the Joban Line or to Narita by car.
“Lifecycle” is a crucial theme for me. I constantly ensure that my life and creative work remain aligned. For example, when my work requires me to travel frequently to rural areas, I try to think of a style of video editing that I can do on trains and airplanes, When I can’t travel due to childcare, I find ways to shoot materials for my work at home, such as capturing windows or filming each passing car in front of my house. It’s a simple thing, but I believe it’s essential to create methods and techniques that match one’s life stage and circumstances.
I think this also raises the question of professional awareness regarding what it takes for the occupation of an artist to be established. I believe that the reason art has power even without large budgets and personnel like film and advertising has to do with the balance with such a “Lifecycle”.
In addition to production, I hope to increase the number of exhibitions, talk events, and other events related to the collection, sales, and archives in the future.
Regarding the relationship between society and art, recently I feel that artistic expression needs society issues and history more than society needs art. Even under such circumstances, many artists have received support under the Corona disaster, and I believe that efforts to prove the social value of art is an urgent post-Corona issue, especially in Japan.
Also, after Corona, the way I see my past works has changed. For example, works on the theme of migration and works shot abroad are now seen as slightly sad video works with a completely different concept, with a strong yearning for the world. There are other works that deal with ciphers and watermarks as motifs of the anxiety and possibilities of video works being shared on video websites, but when I experienced a situation where I was forced to present them only on the web due to the Corona disaster, they took on a completely different meaning.
Although it is unexpected, I believe it is necessary to be sensitive to such changes and accept them well.
header image：《sort bmp – Arnolfini_Portlait》2019年
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Yosuke Nakagawa
Contemporary Art, Media Art, Installation, Video, Photography, Photography & Editing (Photo), Photography & Editing (Video), Archives & Documentary
Born in Saga Prefecture and has lived in Toride City since 2001.
Presents works in the documentation, research, and preservation of works of art and presents video and photographic works. Works by appropriating institutions within the fine arts such as documentary materials, preservation formats, retrieval systems, collections and deliveries. His major works include “This place is closed” (2015, Saitama), in which he documented the interior of a museum undergoing renovation while it was closed; “STAND! ALONE! (Kitakyushu, 2014), in which conducting a video exhibition using electricity provided by the company in consideration of the cost of electricity for the exhibition space, and “sort by sound volume” (Conflictible Cube, Toride, 2019), in which videos are decomposed frame by frame and rearranged in order of loudness.