Artists have long fixated on the nude human form, as I am one of them. Japanese photographer Shinichi Maruyama has produced a series of mind - bending abstract digital images of nude dancers in motion. The works are a kind of ultra-sleek, high tech re-imahining of Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase", if the artist had been lucky enough to own a digital camera, I've looked at this in a previous post.
The swirling, pin wheeling, and butterflied shapes of the dancers in each piece (simply titled "Nude") are not the product of slow motion capture, but rather composites of 10,000 photographs combined into one fluid image. They build on Maruyama's many years working with literally fluid materials: the inks in his "Kusha" series and water in his "Water Sculptures" series.
I found a small interview with Shinichi Maruyama which was conducted by Sarah Mathheson 2013 who is the Studio Art Mayor at University of Richmond; She asks Maruyama some interesting questions which I would like to show.
1. Can you describe your creative process as one that includes flow? If so, when do you experience it or what are the conditions that make it possible? And do you consider your artistic process to be just as important as the finished product?
"Although being Japanese, we are not so familiar with the psychological meaning of "flow", however we are very much influenced by this state of mind through Zen culture such as Judo, Sado (Japanese tea ceromony), Shodo (calligraphy), etc. All of these sports are art forms which are originated from Zen culture require self-discipline. Being disciplined takes you to a state of mind of "flow."
"The Kusho series was created from memories of practicing calligraphy in my childhood. I loved the nervous, precarious feeling of sitting before an empty white page, the moment just before my brush touches the paper. Kusho is calligraphy in a way. Instead of on paper, it is written in the air. Throwing ink and water in the air numerous times requires self descipline." vv
2. By stopping time and giving permanence to ephemeral, short-lived moments, you create a palpable feeling of tension in your Kusho series. Is this an intentional juxtaposition to the flow of the piece? Why are you so interested in movement and motion?
"Because I love the fact that it is beyond my control."3. The newest of your series, Nude, uses movement and the human figure to construct new, independent shapes and forms. How did you transition form Kusho to Nude?
"I tired to capture a moment which the human eye cannot in real time in Kusho. In Nude, I combined those unobtainable moments together."
4. Why did you decide to abandon fluids as a subject and focus on the human figure?
"Because I am also interested in the beauty of the human body."5. Is it important to you for the viewer of these works to recognise the human figure as the source of the images?
"Yes it is"
"I tried to capture the beauty of both the human body's figure and it's motion."
"The figure in the image, which is formed into something similar to a sculpture, is created by combining 10,000 individual photographs of a dancer."
"By putting together uninterrupted individual moments, the resulting image as a whole will appear to be something different from what actually exists."
"With regard to there two viewpoints, a connection can be made to a human being's perception of presence in life."
Like i mentioned earlier, I think that this work is absolutely stunning and is such a good idea. I know that if I had the right camera equipment and technology I would have thought of this idea and done this for my final pieces as it is such a great technique. I know that it would certainly take too long with the time that I have left and I do not have the equipment. But saying this, the project series is exactly what I have been looking for. It uses the motion perfectly and what he says about his own work is fascinating. I have the same feeling for motion photography as he does. It would be interesting if I could get a close response to these images in the studio.
Reading through the interview with Maruyama had made me think about re considering a title for the project, I will also consider looking through my other research to see if I could find a more suitable title with perhaps a bit more meaning - this will be explained in a later post.
No comments:
Post a Comment