Intro
Human Nature
Photographer Sakurai Ryuta wandered from Japan to nine Asian countries to India for 421 days from April 2014. He visited temples in various regions and created nude photographic works with support of local people. After completing such a spiritual ascetic journey, Sakurai went to Düsseldorf, Germany, to look for a new job and a place to live. The cheap and old apartment he rented was on the ground floor, facing a narrow alley. The room was dimly lit and dark, even during the daytime. His room was about 30 square meters big with high ceilings and a small loft room at the top with a ladder over it.
Surrounded by white painted walls, he turned this loft space into a studio for his nude photography work. First, Sakurai painted countless wavy lines and dots in red on the walls of that loft room, depicting an outbreak of energy that foreshadowed the beginning of a new world. After that He invited nude models into the small space and had them to paint a mural before the shoot. Used a variety of materials of different textures and colours, the models expressed their own identities. Some left sentences in their mother tongue, some drew symbols, some just painted with colours. The images on the wall were the accumulation of their desire of expression. Painted on top of each other, they formed a space that was constantly expanded and changed. It was in these spaces that he photographed the naked bodies of the people, stripped bare. The numbers of models increased, the layers of the paintings rose. No one picture will be photographed with the same background. This was the mark of seriousness of the contest between the model and Sakurai, the individual and the reason why his photographs were so powerful as nude works. By taking off clothes and putting themselves in a psychological state of nakedness, people could exist as animals free from sociality. This was the hidden strength of the model, which we had drawn on to create a more in-depth communication.
Since ancient times, humans painted walls in caves. The cave paintings had served as a medium for communicating the lives and environment of the people of that time to us today. And now, in this day and age, in this world in which we live, to be naked in a small space, to paint a picture on a wall, and to take a photograph. In this way Sakurai and his models communicate beyond the barriers of gender, race and language, and you will be able to see the traces of this communion.
The exhibition is kindle supported by:
Installation shots
Fotogalleri Vasli Souza
Damplassen 21
0852, Oslo
Norway
Opening hours:
Thursday – Friday:
12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Saturday – Sunday:
12:00 am – 4:00 pm
Monday – Wednesday:
Closed
The gallery is kindly supported by:
Tor S. Ulstein :)
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