I
live in the foothills of the North Cascades in WA,
where I have been strongly
influenced by the
ambience of the rural life. In
nature I feel invisible
things and hear beautiful
sounds which I have never
witnessed in city life.
I have a keen interest in
matters spiritualistic and
psychological. When I
photograph subjects, I try
to communicate their spirits
and look for the
unexpected imagery that emerges
from the activity
of my subconscious psyche. It
is the same process
as when I interpret the dreams
– dream images are
to be understood symbolically;
that is to say, one
must not take them literally,
but must surmise a
hidden meaning in them. The
dream opens the way
to inner sympathy and
intellectual comprehension.
Therefore, something unknown is
what I always
want to perceive through my
art.
My “Journal” and
“Story” series explore themes of
memory, dreams, paradox and
symbolism. I wish
to draw the viewers into my
work, deliberately
weaving many different narratives
together. Each
image contains some clues to
the stories, but there
is no explanation of the drama unfolding.
No one
reveals the hidden stories because this is not
only
visual but also poetry which has to be
inexplicable
allusion. My goal is to capture special
moments in
time and space that make one slip into a
completely
different world - images that evoke
enigmatic
emotions between real and unreal.
Process
Statement
Many
of my works are mixed media, combining
photography and painting. Some
incorporate
collages of small photos or scorched paper with
my poetry written in the
Japanese language.
Often, my photographs are
layered and blended
in my computer, and before
or after printing
the
images they are scratched or scribbled with
charcoal and colored pencils to highlight
and make
them look more distressed
and unique. I coat the
image
with wax as a final process. The completed
image
feels more three-dimensional with my
methods, and the wax gives the image a rich,
translucent quality and texture. Painting,
handwritten title or poetry, and waxing, transforms
each work in
slightly different ways, making each
final print an
original. I also make limited editioned
pigment ink prints on paper.
Yuko Ishii
