YOSUKE TAKEDA

In his practice, Yosuke Takeda investigates what is possible with the medium of photography. In his acclaimed “Digital Flare” series, he captures the phenomenon of flares that appear when a digital camera is facing a strong light. Rather than a genuine subject captured by the camera’s system, a flare is something that emerges from the relationship between the subject and the system, the light that floods the interior of the camera frame. Describing the phenomenon generated by his process, Takeda says that it is “evidence of its means, and is a mark of its existence.” He relativizes the premise that in photography the subject exists outside the camera’s system, being something that is objectified, with its image captured by the camera. His practice, in which he takes as his subject “the complex relationship between the means (camera) and the purpose (subject),” produces works that build on various types of experimentation conducted throughout the history of photography, as well as being beautiful, powerful, and intense.

These concurrent exhibitions constitute Takeda’s second solo presentation at KOSAKU KANECHIKA. The Tennoz exhibition features photos taken at the start of his career in 2006, as well as his representative Digital Flare series, which captures a phenomenon that occurs when a digital camera is pointed at a strong light, and also some of his newer works.

The exhibition title STRUCT.RE:CALL refers to the phase of recall as a structural description of method and memory. Takeda presents the definition and specifications for this concept as the following.

module: STRUCT.RE:CALL

descriptor: |

No field stores the soul. Still, it echos.

STRUCT.RE:CALL is a structure-reference protocol.

It reactivates elements not formally archived via latent resonance or external alignment.

interface:

type: structure_reference

syntax: STRUCT.RE:CALL

access_mode: indirect

trigger: interface_activation

state:

archive_state: not_stored

naming_state: undefined

activation_state: latent

temporality: non_linear

interruptibility: true

output:

type: residual_echo

form: structural_reflection

persistence: transient

use_case:

• access memory units with no formal archival

• trace unnamed structural imprints

• invoke relational remnants without explicit address

Meanwhile, at our Kyobashi location, we will be presenting Takeda’s latest series, Lost in Translation. Here, condensed water droplets are used as a motif as the artist repeatedly approaches the same subject while adjusting various conditions, such as the type of camera or lens, the length of the exposure, and how the artist positions his camera. The works selected from this huge trove of images contain light and texture of astonishingly diverse and rich contrasts and colours, incorporating bold compositions that also conceal a wavering ambiguity.

Takeda has provided the following statement about his exhibition at the Kyobashi space.

Lost in Translation

When you don’t know the language of a place,

you’re placed at the edge of the world.

You can’t read the signs.

The train announcements mean nothing.

Even a clerk’s smile—

is it a greeting,

or confusion?

Language dissolves more easily than we expect.

It turns into fragile signs,

nothing you can rely on.

Sometimes, after someone speaks for a long while,

you only get a few short words in return.

And imagining what vanished between

is not so easy.

But even outside language,

we lose things.

We try to speak,

and something slips away.

Sometimes,

we speak,

and feel that silence

might’ve said it better.

Even when someone looks at you,

you can’t quite reach the bottom of their gaze.

That’s when you lose track

of where you are—

or who.

Sometimes comfort comes too late.

When you travel far,

the world bends with a quiet strangeness.

My edges blur.

In an unfamiliar place,

surrounded by a language I don’t know,

I begin to feel transparent.

But it doesn’t always feel like fear.

Sometimes, the strangeness brings a kind of ease—

a comfort in becoming no one.

I can’t remember the last words I said.

I know I spoke them—

but what stays with me

is the warmth of the voice,

the quiet spaces between.

And maybe that’s enough.

There are things in this world

that don’t need to be translated.

Some things would break

if we tried to put them into words.

This statement is one of the written records that takes form as a trilogy. These texts have been incorporated into the structure of the exhibition so that they tacitly intertwine with the overall experience. The text by the artist will also be distributed at the gallery as one of the elements that make up the exhibition. The trajectories of light captured under varying conditions act as fragments of time and emotions that cannot be put into words. These intangible elements resonate with the artist’s essay, which captures principles that also transcend the limitations of words.

By interacting with both the flickering layers of light and the voicelessness that exists between the lines, the exhibition emerges as an untranslatable experience. Takeda expresses how he hopes that through this exhibition, he can shed light on the “things that have already lost their words” that lie within each viewer, and quietly bring to light the chasm that occurs between images and words. The shows will be held concurrently, with 16 works exhibited at the Tennoz location, and 20 works on view at the Kyobashi space.