Tomomichi Nakamura
“ Like Ants ”
2019Grand Prize
ARTIST STATEMENT
Like Ants
Hanging Heavy On My Eyes (2016) documents the recurring haze situation in Singapore and its region of prolonged haze spells due to increased forest fires for palm oil plantations in neighbouring Sumatra, Indonesia, throughout the entire year of 2016.
Employing the photograph's indexical quality in literal sense, the artist translates the daily records of the Pollutant Standard Index's particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) from Singapore's National Environment Agency into a traditional wet dark room printing process, resulting in a range of gradated photo prints, displayed in a monthly basis arrangement. An effort to visualize the invisible, namely air and its particles, is to test the limit of documentary photography against the very nature of the medium recording ability that is the indexical.
The work recollects the artist's experience with the discomfort and unease of reduced and affected visibility – a result of conditions in human's continuous bid to control, intervene and manipulate landscapes and environment aligned to narrow-minded agendas.
Entries form: Twenty-one still images, Five plywood sheets (455 x 600 mm), oil paint, steel sixteen photos
Selecting judge: Rineke Dijkstra
In Tomomichi Nakamura's series “Like Ants” there's a constant interchange between reality and fiction. As a child Nakamura played with insects and mistreated ants in his games – just like many children of his ages – by cutting them in half. Now, as his father is on his deathbed, Nakamura feels the same powerlessness as the ants must have felt, back in the days. A strong feeling of anxiety and impotence comes over him and that is precisely what he wants to show in “Like Ants.” His grief becomes too strong and he feels like he's being overrun. With great sensitivity Tomomichi Nakamura documents his father's sickbed and the dying process – at the same time he fabricates huge collages of ants. This way, he beautifully expresses his emotions, which are complex, oppressive and melancholic at the same time.
PROFILE
Tomomichi Nakamura
Tomomichi Nakamura was born in Okayama in 1972.
Animation Works
My Town (2007)
Honorable Mention at the 2007 Image Forum Festival (Tokyo)
Ants (2008)
55th International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany (2009)
Tenshi Modoki (2014)
45th Tampere Film Festival, Finland (2015)
Semi-finalist award at the Okayama Arts and Culture Awards (2016)
Honorable mention at the Fukutake Cultural Awards (2017)
Photographic Works
Like Ants (2019)
Grand Prize at the New Cosmos of Photography (2019)
Semi-finalist award at the Okayama Arts and Culture Awards (2020)
Ants (2020)
Solo exhibition at the New Cosmos of Photography Exhibition (2020)
A Home for the Hermit Crab (2021)
Jurorsü Pick at the LensCulture Art Photography Awards (2022)
2019Grand Prize