Layan Damanhouri

Saudi Gazette

 

BEYOND MEMORY, exhibited at Grimaldi Gavin in London, uncovers a series of photographs gathered by Japanese photographer Tomoko Yoneda over the past 14 years, recounting moving stories behind scenes of landscapes and interiors.



At first glance, Wedding captures a scene taken in 2007 of a wedding party held on a boat in a river at Dandong, China.



“The location appears sometimes so ordinary so it is unbelievable to think how these distortional tragedies could have happened.



When I stood at the bank of the river divide between North Korea and China, it was so peaceful, there are no fences – nothing except the water,” says Yoneda.



“I was trying to photograph a bridge made by Japanese during the occupation but bombed by Americans during the Korean War, but I coincidently saw a wedding boat floating freely, a happy unity, my blood rushed and I held my camera tight to capture the image.



This image summed up of the location that had passed through history and the state of the current situation.”



Yoneda’s photographs and captions invite visitors to a profound experience to the past, revealing images of present-day locations of previous historical conflicts and political turmoil.



The solo exhibit presents photos that are highly personal and thought provoking, allowing visitors to create mental images beyond the visuals.



American B52 Returning From A Raid in Iraq takes the audience to a melancholy trip to Fairford, England.



Images of blue skies specked with B52 planes returning from bombing raids in Iraq in 2003 allude to a personal memory of Yoneda’s parents’ time when American B29 bombers flew over Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the World War II.



Photographs of interior settings equally grab attention. Japanese House (2010) presents a series of homes photographed in Taipei that were built during the Japanese occupation between 1895 and 1945.



Yoneda focuses on the influence of Japanese design such as shoji screens, alcoves of grid-like structure, and ‘Chinese’ dark red paint, generating a blend of political ideologies.



Yoneda says, “Because how we live now is connected with what happened before us. We need to see “events” or “places” sometimes with our own imagination beyond the scene.



“We have to train ourselves to make sense of events. We need to gain the power to be able to see beyond obscured images in front of us.



We often only associate images of war or violence as only photographs of bloodshed from the crime scenes”.



She further adds, “The banality of the scenery we see everyday becomes a reminder that atrocity or cruelty exist in the places where we live as well as what can be done carried out by people just like us. This can take place under the skies we consider the most beautiful in nature.”



From the series Rivers Become Oceans, captured in Bangladesh in 2008, images of landscapes reveal the reality of climate change and its destructive force.



Bangladesh, located on the delta of three major rivers, is threatened by rising sea levels. The majority of work on display refers to political conflicts in the past that seem over yet still have a lingering effect today.



The comparison of the past with the present suggests an air of renewal and hope. The exhibition runs until Aug. 7.



Her upcoming participations include the Nissan Artist Award 2015 at BankART Studio NYK in Yokohama later this year and Discordant Harmony at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in December until March 2016.