Currently in; Tokyo, Japan
Study in Melancholia (2013~2014)
Tokyo is a utopia, a nowhere land, for me.
Everything is hyper-organized, we're flooded with information and there's nothing you can't buy.
Any desire can be satisfied here.
Still, the city is permeated by a vague sense of threat.
Loneliness, exhaustion, depression, emptiness and insanity.
Tokyo is made up of various materials and emotions.
Extended reproduction and consumption have been accelerated as if it were the very model of capitalism.
The social system creaks like the rails of a roller coaster, with the psyche of people getting slashed and bruised as they ride along.
Since I was a child, I've only had a faint sense of being alive.
There's a huge gap between my consciousness and emotions. As long as I can remember I've felt like I were split in two, that I'm just a replaceable, empty existence.
However, when I photograph people and things here, it's like I'm slashing myself.
Through framing, I absorb the pain of the city and get to feel like I'm alive.