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Time Medium, 2017
Black and white gelatin silver prints, acrylic on plexiglass
11" x 14" for photographs, dimensions variable for paintings
“Time Medium” is a series of pairs, each consisting of a photograph and a painting. This series is inspired by the Japanese word “Yaku” which describes both the actions of firing ceramics (such as vases) and developing photographs. Hamaguchi begins by gradually filling in the contours of a drawing of a vase and its background with black paint on a panel. While she paints along the contours of the vase drawing, a pinhole camera takes a long exposure photograph of the entire process. In the photograph, time reveals a value difference which renders the vase three dimensional. The strokes of paint Hamaguchi applied earliest to the panel appear darkest in the photograph as their total exposure time is longest; whereas, the strokes of paint added at the end of the process appear lightest. In the end, the painting is a solid black abstraction while the photograph reveals the image of a vase—an image created by the process itself. In essence, the photograph is the image of something that does not exist.
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Installation view, The Toride Museum, Ibaraki, 2017