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21/11/2012

Ken Kitano

Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong

Blindspot Gallery is delighted to present Japanese conceptual photographer Ken Kitano’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong showcasing his photographic project our face.

At first glance images in our face can be deceiving. Where it appears to be an ambiguous portrait of a single person, it is in fact an accumulation and stratification of several dozen individuals. The single figure we see does not exist as an actual person, nor can it be classed as a true portrait. Instead it is far closer to the demographic whole, not only a representation of the subject but also a creation of a new signifier, questioning people’s very existence.

Kitano has been working on our face since 1999, when he started taking photos of various social groups, divided into 6 categories: on the road, religion, children, war, race and occupation. The images ranged from Chinese laborers, to Muslim women, to world peace protesters. The project started in his motherland but continued on to other parts of the world, making it his life’s work.

Kitano’s techniques are of the old school. His work is painstakingly produced and time consuming, using darkroom layering process which combines dozens of negatives, images are projected on top of one another with precise exposures to create an icon of a particular community. Kitano sees darkroom skills as a handcraft, artistry of a bygone age. Each of the life size print is unique and printed in Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (Beijing), one of the very few facilities in the world where this work can be produced on such a scale.

Kitano’s images push the boundaries of social documentary photography and typological photography, breaking down hierarchies within localized groups, where all people are presented as equal. He explores the possibility of coexistence, using photography medium as a connector, a hub. Rather than establishing a sole figure to represent a certain group, (as most social documentary photography tends to do), these photographs combine together and create a psychic consciousness, and at the same time reinventing a traditional craftsmanship that is quickly fading away.

Ken Kitano
Born in 1968 in Tokyo, Kitano graduated from the College of Mathematical Engineering at Nihon University in Chiba. He won the ‘Society of Photography Award’ in 2004 and the ‘Newcomer’s Award’ of the Photographic Society of Japan in 2007. His work has been exhibited extensively and collected by major museums in Japan and around the world. Kitano currently lives and works in Tokyo.

Image: Metaportrait of 35 Esoteric Buddhist Monks of the Shingon Sect Studying at KOHYA Mountain Specialty School, Wakayama No. 4, 2010
Gelatin silver print, 177 x 142 cm. Image courtesy of artist and Blindspot Gallery

Opening Reception: Thursday, 22 November 2012, 7:00-9:00pm

Artist Talk: Thursday, 22 November 2012, 6:00-7:00 pm (RSVP required

Blindspot Gallery
24-26A, Aberdeen Street Central Hong Kong
Hours: Tues-Sat 11am-7pm

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