HANA KINBAKU by Nobuyoshi Araki

日本人写真家、荒木経惟の作品集。2008年にタカ・イシイギャラリーで開催された展覧会「花緊縛」に伴い刊行された。

以下プレスリリースより

今年で12回目の個展となる本展では、2つのポジフィルムを組み合わせて1つのプリントに仕上げるという初の試みによる作品を発表致します。

花
実家の近所の浄閑寺、いわゆる投げ込み寺ね。子供の頃よく遊んだ馴染みのある場所なんだけど、そこで枯れかけた彼岸花を見つけたの。「これはすごい！」って、白バックを持ってって日が暮れるまで撮ったの。これが俺の花人生の始まりだね。
－「ARAKI by ARAKI」2003年

緊縛
縛りでも「美学」があるっていうでしょ。達人の域に達した人の「亀甲縛り」とかさ。そういう完成度を写真に求めないわけ。縛るのでも、つたなくていいのよ。完成度を求めずに、「作品」にしないようにする。縛るときは「肉体を縛るんじゃないよ。心を縛るんだよ」なんていってるけど、俺の縛りは縄抜け出来る縛りだからね。完成されてる必要がないんだよ。
－「すべての女は美しい」2006年

「エロス（性/生）とタナトス（死）についていつも考えている」と荒木は言います。常にエロスとタナトスを表裏一体のものとして作品に抱え込む荒木は、本展にて、エロスとして“緊縛”を、タナトスとして“花”を用い、それらをひとつの作品のなかに共存させ、これまでに無いかたちで昇華させています。

Official Press Release:

Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to announce our twelfth solo exhibition with Nobuyoshi Araki, “Hana Kinbaku”. For this exhibition, the gallery will present works in which two positives are printed simultaneously as one photograph – a first for Araki. Approximately 100 photographs from the series will be exhibited.

Hana (Flower)
In my childhood neighborhood, there was a “temple for sanctuary.” This was a familiar place where I often played as a child. There, I found dying cluster of amaryllis (spider lilies), and was astonished by their beauty. I used a white background and shot the flowers until it got dark. This experience was the start of my “flower life.”
－ “ARAKI by ARAKI” 2003

Kinbaku (Bondage)
There is the “aesthetics” of bondage, like bondage masters’ Kikko Shibari (bondage in a testudinal form.) But I don’t need perfection like that in photography. Nor does the bondage have to be good. By not pursuing perfection, I try not to make it too much of an “art work.”
When I tie-up women, I tell them “I’m binding your heart, not your body.” A woman can slip out of my bondage. It doesn’t have to be accomplished.
－ “Subete no onna wa utsukushii (All women are beautiful)” 2006

According to his words, Araki is “always thinking about Eros (sex/ life) and Thanatos (death).” As such, Araki’s works always embrace Eros and Thanatos as inextricably linked elements. In the exhibited works, Araki photographed Kinbaku (bondage) to express Eros, and Hana (Flower) for Thanatos, allowing them to coexist in the prints, conjoining them in a way that he has never tried before.

by Nobuyoshi Araki

¥6,600 (tax incl.)

hardcover
152 pages
158 x 252 mm
color
limited edition of 500 copies
2008

published by TAKA ISHII GALLERY

BLUE PERIOD / LAST SUMMER : ARAKINEMA 青ノ時代／去年ノ夏：アラキネマ by Nobuyoshi Araki [JAPAN EDITION]

SESSION PRESS & DASHWOOD BOOKS

REGULAR PRICE ¥13,200 (tax incl.)