Lounge
April 17, 2015
17th: Seiichi Furuya Interview (2)
17th Installment: Seiichi Furuya Exhibition "im fluss 流れゆく" Interview (Part 2)
Following up on our last installment (the 16th), we bring you the second part of our interview with Seiichi Furuya.
Our conversation flows from Mr. Furuya's thoughts behind the exhibition's title to his perspective on photography.
Photo by Jamandfixedit by TAKEUCHI Toranosuke(City Writes)
Thoughts Entrusted to the Flow of the Danube
──The current exhibition is titled "im fluss 流れゆく." What thoughts are entrusted to this title?
Seiichi FuruyaThe title is German, with the adverb 'im' attached to 'fluss,' meaning 'river.' A direct translation would be something like 'in the river.'
We interpreted this to mean 'flowing' in Japanese.
Firstly, it embodies the flow of time, which I've spoken about before.
I currently live in Graz, Austria, and the Danube River flows nearby.
The Danube is a great river that originates in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald in Germany) and flows into the Black Sea.
I've always felt that this is very much like a human life. The Black Forest is the birth canal, and the Black Sea is, in a sense, death.
Living in a place like this, the flow of the river is a very real symbol of life for me.
Furthermore, the phrase 'flowing' also reflects my stance on photography.
I consider each photograph to be like a single character in the Japanese syllabary or a letter in the alphabet. Therefore, in the extreme, each individual photograph has no meaning on its own.
However, by combining these individual 'words' captured in photographs, they become sentences and then stories.
In that sense, for this exhibition, I hope viewers can feel a narrative unfolding throughout the works.
Stories Woven Through Photography
──Does this mean you view your own work quite objectively?
Yes. I write 'sentences' with photographs using various images, so I always view and refine my photographs as a viewer myself.
When I exhibit and see the work, I often realize that a particular photograph doesn't belong in that spot.
Because it's like writing, there's always one perfect photograph that should be placed there.
And this is something that can only be understood when displayed in a public space and viewed from a distance.
Therefore, for me, an exhibition is also a place to check myself, to reveal my inner self in the form of photographs.
Why do I take photographs?
Ultimately, it's an act that connects to the fundamental human question of 'Who am I?'
Seiichi Furuya Exhibition "im fluss 流れゆく"
Dates: On display until August 3rd (Fri)
Hours: 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM (Closed Mondays)
Venue: RAT HOLE GALLERY
5-5-3 Minami-Aoyama, HYSTERIC GLAMOUR Aoyama Store B1F
TEL: 03-6419-3581