art opening: yamamoto masao

friday eve i attended an opening for artist yamamoto masao at the center for photographic art in carmel.

this center is not a commercial gallery, but rather a nonprofit .org that preserves the local photographic heritages of this area. weston(s), adams, lange, cunningham & others were all active here (some lived here full time). their exhibits are always high end, internationally know photographers (i saw a ulsmann show there).

masao: was not familiar with his work before. had seen his bw image of ocean/horizon/sky taken when overcast that was low contrast, flat sky, & details of repetitious waves that was appealing. sort had a meditative zen or rothko thing going.

the show:
was more of an installation than what one thinks of a typical photo exhibition. each exhibition wall was an environment. images were small. some smaller than postage stamps that were arranged asymmetrically and sparsely to give a sense of randomness. one ten foot wall had a single image the size of my thumb of a belly button. my companion was challenged by masao's sensibilities while i enjoyed them. there were two cases in which one contained a scroll of sorts>>> looked to be similarly arranged bw or tinted tiny images printed on a roll>>> destop in banner printing mode??? the other was printed the same way & style of images yet was folded accordion style. both honored the wholistic quality/ideology prevalent in asian scrolls. the floating photos reminded me of figures or trees floating in space on paper without the constructs of perspective common in western art. in asian art the space is not perceived as empty. all his images are random and include images like leaves/nature, household objects, figure. no portraits & all cropped tight to increase abstraction and fragmentation of the relationship between the images. his statement said not to find meaning that they were intended as an experience.

liked it. i am drawn to creating environments which is why i have worked large >>>> easier to get lost in. like the fragmented quality, had that "red wheelbarrow" (poem) trailing thought sensibility.

i perceived his installations as landscapes & as landscapes they relate to my other readings this semester.