“When I am alone, I recall images of landscapes, though I must admit that it is not that intentional. It is perhaps more accurate to say that these images come to instead omef me calling them up. Images that appear are not only the nostalgic images that have left deep impressions on me, but also anonymous landscapes that are of no importance. I sometimes wonder whether I have actually seen these, since the most important things remain vague, and the unimportant details appear vividly in my mind. Memory is ever so elusive regardless of the intent of the subject.

These landscapes that I am sure I have seen become of paradoxical perspective in my memory with the movement of time. It is not that these images had concrete shapes at that time anyways. Memory lacks coherence in the first place, constantly shifting, impressing upon the mind the unexpected details and omitting others.

Visual surfaces encircle us and keep creating a world that holds us in. I sometimes look at photographs that are dear to me or ones that are unmemorable: vivid outlines, unsparing shades, exacting positioning. However, I question whether they were really like that. I don't know whether we can possibly live in such a decisively non kinetic place like worlds captured in these photos.

I paint the images of what could have been around the scene which the photo has captured. By changing the content of the photography with painting, this gesture is an act to learn the inexactness of memory and existence. And to me, the landscape created out of this process is indeed the world where we reside in.”

2004, Keisuke Shirota

TOP > WORKS > SELECTED WORKS