Erika Kusumi【Learning from the Past to Create the Future】 A Presentation by Erika Kusumi

✧ Opening｜2024.10.12 （Sat）15:30-16:00
✧ Forum｜2024. 10.12 （Sat）16:00-17:30
✧ Artist｜ Erika Kusumi
✧ Panelist | Lee, Hsu-Pin
✧ Exhibition Date｜2024.10.12-10.27

✧ Venue｜SanHo Art Lab
✧ Address｜ No. 14, Sanhe St., South Dist., Tainan City
✧ Opening Hours｜Wed to Sun 12:00-18:00

✧ Exploring the Extraordinary in the Everyday Life: A Photography Workshop｜2024.9.28 （Sat） 14:30-17:30

Organizer： Absolute Space AIR
Recommending Unit： Sapporo TenjinyamaArt Studio
Advisor： Ministry of Culture

*The event will be conducted in Japanese and Mandarin.
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【Statement】
In 2022, through an online collaborative exhibition with Absolute Space for the Arts, artists, and curators from Hokkaido, I created a piece titled "City 946." This work was themed around connecting the cities of Tainan and Sapporo, where I live, through their iconic architecture and landscapes.

While I was deeply moved by the number of Japanese colonial-era buildings that have become landmarks in Tainan, I also began to wonder how Taiwan, as a country, has embraced such a diverse history. As a result, during this residency, I focused on learning about the city’s history and visiting various locations in person.

As I walked through the streets of Tainan and captured its essence through photography, I felt that I had found part of the answer to my question. Tainan is one of the earliest developed areas in Taiwan, and there are many old buildings from before the Japanese colonial period scattered throughout the city. These structures are well-preserved or renovated, and I could physically sense how history breathes within the daily life of the city. I was also struck by the sheer number of temples dedicated to various gods, reflecting how deeply faith and prayer are woven into everyday life. It became clear to me that Tainan’s ability to embrace a wide range of cultures and values stems from its diverse history, shaped by influences from the West, China, and Japan, as well as the presence of immigrants and indigenous peoples.

Having grown up in Sapporo, a modern city with just 150 years of history, this was my first experience staying in such a historically rich area for an extended period of time. Tainan, with its entirely different climate and culture, left a strong impression on me as a city that truly embodies the idea of "learning from the past to create the future." In Japan, many old towns and buildings are being demolished for redevelopment. While I understand that factors like Japan’s climate and changing earthquake-resistant building standards make it difficult to preserve older structures, I can’t help but feel a sense of loss as these historical landscapes disappear.

Now that we are living in the Anthropocene—a new era shaped by human economic activities and nuclear testing that have dramatically altered the environment—I believe that instead of the energy-intensive "scrap and build", cities should adopt the philosophy of "learning from the past to create the future".

Inspired by the Solarpunk genre, which envisions a society where nature and technology coexist, I created two works titled "City 22." These pieces combine the ideal future where humanity coexists with nature with the vibrant, beautiful daily life of Tainan, which encompasses many diverse cultural elements. The number "22" in the title refers to Tainan’s latitude and also serves as a link to my previous work, "City 946."

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone at Absolute Space AIR for be “Summon” me from the north, and giving me this wonderful opportunity.

【Erika Kusumi】
Born in 1982, she presently lives and works in Sapporo, Hokkaido. She is a freelance photographer, web designer and also an artist. Her works function as memories of the “reality” experienced. By overlaying pictures from different times and spaces, her works are digitally processed. Her works are classified as digital collages, made solely from the photographs she has taken. Selected Important exhibitions include: “We are made of Layers”GALLERY MoNMA, Hokkaido, “Travel of Dawn” GALLERY SCENA, Tokyo, “Through the eyes of Hokkaido Artists” Absolute Space for the Arts, Tainan, Taiwan, “2+2 Hokkaido-Gwangju Art Exchange Exhibition 2019” Phase 1, Gallery Retara, Hokkaido.
https://kusumierika.com/

【Lee, Hsu-Pin】
A native of Tainan, Taiwan, Lee Hsu-Pin still resides in his hometown today. A working artist and curator. Lee has exhibited at international photography festivals and museums since 2000. In 2010, he received a National Culture and Arts Foundation creative project grant for his 2010 Disastrous Landscapes work, exhibiting the resulting work – now housed in the collection of the Gruppe Deutsche Börse Photographic Foundation – at the 2016 Taipei Biennial and 2017 Photo Paris.

Lee Hsu-Pin takes a highly introspective approach, unfolding narratives alternately with images and words as annotations. He uses distant scenic landscapes to emulate classical photography, or the landscape documentary images of early anonymous photographers; he matches classical photographic forms with today’s photographic climate, deliberately sizing the works, so as to subtly demand that viewers stop in their tracks to “carefully inspect at the scene,” and to conduct careful readings of the images. The tranquil quality of the works leads viewers to re-think the visual experience of classic landscape photography; taking in scenes with no apparent narrative, easily feeling the delicate traces of the earth’s changes over time.
https://leehiokpin.wixsite.com/scenery