MOTHER’S | ISHIUCHI MIYAKO

The Mother’s project is a collection of photographs taken by the artist Ishiuchi Miyako (Gunma, Japan, 1947) between 2000 and 2005. The images show everyday objects that once belonged to the artist’s mother, who passed away in 2000.
Ishiuchi’s project is not only a memorial but also an opportunity to deepen her understanding of a person very dear to her, by exploring the most intimate details and personal belongings that were part of her mother’s daily life.
You cannot photograph the past, but it leaves material traces—a used lipstick, a wrinkled dress, a set of dentures—and these can be captured before they disappear or are forgotten.
Ishiuchi’s process was to capture, through photography, the passage of a soul, with the aim of bearing witness to an existence.

The artworks feature close-ups of objects placed on a gray steel surface, reminiscent of laboratory tables. The titles of the photographs follow a sequential numbering, thus enacting a kind of systematic cataloging.
However, unlike true archival photographs, in which the depicted object is the subject of the image, in Ishiuchi’s works, the protagonists are the marks imprinted on the surface, silent and undeniable evidence of a life lived.

“All that has form will eventually vanish,” says Ishiuchi. It’s a melancholic, bittersweet thought, but in the end, it is this very awareness that allows us to fully appreciate the present and what we have, giving value to relationships and people, living them today rather than regretting them tomorrow, when they are gone.

The Mother’s series is part of the exhibition “Ishiuchi Miyako – Belongings”, organized with the support of Kering | Women in motion and in collaboration with Kyotographie International Photography Festival, on the occasion of the 2024 edition of the Rencontres d’Arles festival, July 1–September 29, 2024.

18/09/24

MOTHER’S | ISHIUCHI MIYAKO

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