A DVD exhibition by Japanese video artist Atsushi Ogata is running till Feb. 7 at Ishizaka Art in Tokyo's Toranomon.
Rapid technological advances are challenging fixed ideas about art, and Ogata is using the new media to expand the definition of art. Through video images, which have been remastered as original DVDs, he has produced what he calls "never-ending moving paintings."
Each work has its own tale to tell, but rather than narratives, these are whispers. Ogata depicts only the outline of his subjects, omitting the details to form a blurry but suggestive image.
By using a slow-motion device and adjusting shutter speed and aperture, Ogata creates a "strobe-like" effect, to give his moving paintings what he calls "a soft painterly texture."
For this exhibition, he has chosen the theme "White," hoping to give viewers a sense of relief and liberation through evocative images of white, such as fog or snow.
In his work "Tsuru no Mai," he captures cranes dancing gracefully in a snow-covered land. In Japan, the elegant birds are auspicious symbols of longevity due to a folk belief that cranes live for 1,000 years.
"I use the video camera like a 'brush' and I paint with it," says Ogata, who is based in Tokyo, Amsterdam and New York. His works have been shown worldwide, and he has won awards in Locarno in Switzerland, and Oberhausen and Osnabrück in Germany.
His last major solo exhibition in Tokyo, "Should I Go or Should I Stay," in collaboration with video artist Ann Davis, was exhibited at ICC. One work from that show will also be on display.
