Yan Kallen “Between the Light and Darkness”

Mumeisha

poster for Yan Kallen “Between the Light and Darkness”
Image: Yan Kallen "Wood Saw I, Maki Shinto Ritual Articles, Kyoto" (2017)

This event has ended.

Hong Kong-based artist Yan Kallen received the Grand Prix last year at the 2016 Kyotographie KG+ Award for his solo exhibition “No coming / No going” (Kaho Gallery). His work Rhythm of Nature (2014–2016) - a series of still life photographs of brooms against black backgrounds - conveys Yan’s appreciation for artisanal handcrafting and human life led in communion with nature.
The series of works that Yan presents in this year’s exhibition, symbolized by the elements of light and darkness, illuminates the recurrence, continuity and circulation of the two opposing worlds that dwell in all things. In December 2016, Yan immerged himself in Kyoto over a period of four months, spending time with artisans in various fields of traditional crafts. Stories of family, the interaction between people and nature, societal tension, and the circulating passage of time that Yan unearthed through his conversations with artisans are all explored in the context of “light and darkness” as a series of photographic works and installations.
A highlight of the exhibition is Yan’s camera obscura designed in collaboration with artisans of tea ceremony kettles, sacred mirrors housed in shrines and temples, and wooden Shinto joinery. By drawing light through a small hole into a darkened room, it projects there an image of the scene outside. Recognized as the origin of the camera, the camera obscura is a reminder that photography comes into existence through light penetrating darkness. Yan’s version is composed of a mirror that converts negative images into positive, and a wooden frame of Japanese cypress with beautiful growth rings formed by shifting temperatures across winter and summer. These dualities that reside in its materials make this collaborative work the representative symbol of the series.
During his artist’s residence in Kyoto, Yan often explored the Mumeisha, which became the venue for this exhibition. The building’s memories, accumulated over 120 years by the original occupants of the machiya — a traditional Kyoto-style house—and their day-to-day ordinary prayers, provide a perfect setting of “place” for Yan’s collaborative works.

* This exhibition is part of the Kyotographie International Photography Festival.

Media

Schedule

from 4月 15, 2017 at 10:00 to 5月 14, 2017 at 18:00
Closed on Wednesdays. Open on May.3.

Artist(s)

Yan Kallen

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Reviews

Chiaki Ogura tablog review

KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2017

”写真は人生との愛の戯れ”。5月14日まで、京都各所にて開催。

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