Chino Otsuka is a visual artist who was born in Tokyo, Japan but now lives and works in the UK. She started her studies at Summerhill School in the Midlands. She then went to study a BA (Hons) degree at the University of Westminster in Film, Video & Photographic Arts. Finally she then finished her education with a masters degree at the Royal College of Art in Fine Art Photography.
Otsuka’s work doesn’t tell a story of her own personal trauma she has suffered growing up but it does portray memory. She creates images based on her memories of childhood but the project that I feel I connect to the most is her project “Memoryscapes”.
“The examination of memory and the use of vernacular photography continues in the recent work entitled Memoryscapes. I have carefully selected and re-photographed a small section of old photographs and enlarged the image. The magnified image becomes fragmented and blurred, a new landscape created from the remnants of memories.”
Most memories are blurred because they can’t all be remembered. I feel I can relate to these images in the series as well as some of her other series of work because my memories of my childhood and growing up are blurry. There is no personal connection to Otsuka’s work to me but there is a very personal connection to her images to herself. As there isn’t a personal connection between this project and myself I have decided to look at another project of hers that I feel I may have more of a connection with.
The project “Imagine Finding Me” starts off with a quote reading “If, again I have a chance to meet, there is so much I want to ask and so much I want to tell.”
This project links to me on a much more personal level because she is creating a project where she is talking to her younger self. I, on the other hand am creating images from my childhood in the places that I remember from when I was younger. I think that both Memoryscapes and Imagine Finding Me have a connection with me as both projects are about memories of growing up. The work is very creative and very different to anyone else’s that I’ve researched into. I think that Otsuka may feel like she has no identity since living in America because she hasn’t grown up there.
Comments