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Nishiyama Minako
Production process for “illuminé” exhibition
2004
Courtesy: Kodama Gallery
During the early 1990s, while the kawaii culture was frequently used as the epitome of Japanese contemporary culture and established international recognition, Minako Murayama gained wide attention in her adoption of the girly-taste elements, such as girl-mangas and doll-play, as the central motif of her artistic practices. The Doll House installation, where the audience can participate and literally experience the space, is one of her representative work. Additionally, she has also created works that recall and connote the sweet yet ephemeral nature of a girl’s fantasy. This is embodied in her spotless white tiara made from sugar and bed filled with pink roses. In her recent relief-like works, the relief patterns, which could be interpreted as either the curves from an arabesque design, or the curly waves of a female character’s hair in a girl-manga, or a girl-manga’s backdrop drawn by a curve template, protrude from the wall-plane and a soft pink color envelops the surrounding space. This is, in fact, the effect of fluorescent pink color applied on the reverse side of the MDF cut-out relief reflecting on the wall. The girly-tastes which were literally and candidly used in her earlier works are subdued in her more recent ones. The various motifs are once processed by the artist, where the girlish essence is made the more abstract and representational, thereby essentialized in the work. Although the color pink is symbolic and represents the girly world, it must be noted that she selected the color for a more realistic purpose; for the nature of the reflection that best fit with her works. In this exhibition, she shows a site-specific installation, where the motifs are installed in several layers to create an all the more intricate and perplexed form of reflection in the space.
在1990年代初，日本当代文化常被说成“可爱文化”，产生了国际影响。西山对少女趣味元素的运用，诸如少女漫画与娃娃游戏，是其艺术实践的中心母 题，在当时获得广泛注目。“娃娃屋”（Doll House）装置，观众可参与并可真实地体验其空间，是她的代表作之一。 另外，她亦创作了作品，回忆、意味少女幻想的甜蜜却瞬息而逝。这体现在她用白糖做的无暇的三重冠和充满粉红玫瑰的床中。在她近期的浮雕状的作品中，浮雕图 样或可被诠释为源出唐草，或是源出少女漫画中女性角色的卷曲发浪，或是用曲线板画出的少女漫画的背景，图样突出墙面，一种柔和的粉色围合周遭。这事实上是 涂于切作浮雕纹样的中密度板背面的荧光粉色映在墙上的效果。在她早期的作品中出现的直白的少女趣味在她更近期的作品中减弱了。艺术家一度掌握的多样的母 题，经咀嚼，其少女趣味趋向抽象和象征化，结晶于作品中。虽然粉色有象征色彩，代表着少女的世界，必须注意的是，艺术家选择这一颜色有更现实的考量，是为 了求得最适合其作品的反射的效果。在本次展览中，她展出了一件为特定场地而作的装置，纹样母题层层叠叠，以创造空间中更错综复杂的粉色反射效果。
Odani Motohiko (小谷元彦)
Skeleton
2003
FRP, others
approx. diam.550×H3900mm
Photo: Keizo KIOKU
Collection of Ise Cultural Foundation
Courtesy of YAMAMOTO GENDAI
Born in 1972, Kyoto, Japan. Attention was first paid to Odani for his use of unusual materials, such as stuffed swans and shark’s teeth (Circlet, 1997) in his works. Being fascinated by ideas such as the body, flesh, process, dissection and so on, he achieves in creating an ominous touch to his works via the choice of material in use. These in turn provoke spectators to become conscious of their primitive senses, such as fear, survival and sensuality. His obsession with the flesh and body is also reflected in the titles of his works, Human Lesson (DRESS01), 1996, Phantom Limb, 1997. His contribution to the 2003 Venice Biennale must also be attributed where Skeleton, 2003 and Berenice, 2003 were exhibited in the Dream and Conflict exhibition. Odani currently lives and works in Tokyo.
1972年出生于日本东京。业内对他的最初关注是源于他在作品中所使用特殊材料，诸如天鹅标本和鲨鱼的牙齿（扣环, 1997）。由于对尸体、肉体、过程、解剖等元素的痴迷，他实现了通过选择所使用的材料来建立其作品的不祥感觉。如此一来，相应引起了观众对原始感觉的好 奇，例如恐惧、求生欲和性。他对肉体和尸体的痴迷也反映在了作品的名称上，《训诫（第一章）》（1996），《幻肢》（1997）。他的《骨骼》 （2003）和《贝雷斯》（2003）展于2003威尼斯双年展的梦想与冲突展览。小谷元彦目前在东京生活和工作。
Okazaki Kyoko (岡崎京子)
Okazaki made her debut in 1983 in Manga Burikko, a manga magazine primarily aimed for adults. Deviating from the traditional notions of love and romance in girl-mangas, such as innocence and the ethereality, Okazaki’s characters are bold and freewheeling, holding unconventional sets of values. In the 1990s, she begins to engage in more dense themes, depicting the multifarious dimensions of society with a more objective and unflustered perspective, leading her to produce one of her greatest works/pieces, River’s Edge. The story takes place in a suburban housing area, constructed during the period of high economic growth, and features a high school student. A relatively conventional setting at first glance, betrays the reader’s expectation as the manga follows the character’s blank gaze on a corpse found in the grass of a nearby riverbed, without neither signs of fear nor reality. The emergence of the new generation – the so called “Shin-Jinrui” (new human species), the bubble economy and its burst/destruction, the Miyazaki Tsutomu incident,* are some phenomena of the period which signified the disintegration of the social cohesion, until then held together by the universally shared vision and values in reconstructing and modernizing the nation. Okazaki firmly established her position as a manga artist by acutely depicting the emptiness that was prevalent at the time and the everyday of people who live by the pleasure of the moment. HELTER SKELTER, features a beautiful model, whose body underwent a total cosmetic surgery, and illustrates the accelerating derailment of her success. Here, she exposes with much reality, the obsession, jealousy, and deprivation caused by the desire to acquire “beauty” and the overpowering economic and commercial circumstances surrounding such desire.
* Miyazaki Tsutomu killed 4 young girls by between 1988 and 1989, and became to be known as the ‘otaku’ murderer.
1983年，岡崎在一本主要面向成人的漫画杂志《漫画ブリッコ》（Manga Burikko1）中初次献艺。不同于少女漫画中对爱和浪漫感情的传统观念，诸如纯真、轻妙，岡崎的人物大胆奔放，持有的是非传统的价值观。在1990年 代，她开始介入更厚重的种种主题，以一种更客观从容的视角描述世态万象，创作出其代表作《河之边》(『リバーズ・エッジ』, River’s Edge) 。故事发生在一个经济高速成长期开发的郊外住宅区，讲的是一位高中生的故事。乍看是比较习见的场景，但是，当这部漫画跟从主角对附近河床草丛中一具尸体既 无恐惧感亦无真实感的茫然凝视，漫画的发展背离了读者的预期。新一代人——所谓的“新人类”（「新人類」，“Shin-Jinrui” ）的出现、泡沫经济及其崩溃、宫崎勤事件（Miyazaki Tsutomu incident）2，是这一时期的一些现象，它们表征了社会凝聚力的瓦解，这种社会凝聚力，直到当时都是由国家重建和国家现代化所共通的目标与价值观支 撑、聚拢的。通过敏锐地描绘当时盛行的虚无感和靠刹那欢愉过活的人们的日常生活，岡崎坚实地奠定了其漫画艺术家地位。《仓惶》（『ヘルター・スケル ター』，HELTER SKELTER）以一位美丽的模特儿为主角，她的身体经历了一次全身整形手术，她的成功加速脱轨。这里，艺术家揭露了由求“美”的欲望导致的迷恋、嫉妒和 丧失，和围绕在这一欲望周围的压倒性的经济和商业环境。
Paramodel (パラモデル)
Paramodel
phantom-graffiti ( metal mold factory of night )
photograf : lambda-print
size : 1000 × 1200 mm
2006
© paramodel / photo : paramodel
A collaboration between Hayashi Yasuhiko, born 1971, and Nakano Yusuke, born 1976, both originally from Higashi Osaka prefecture, the two first named their unit “Paramodel” in 2003. Adopting the theme of “terrestrial paradise” as their motif, they use various mediums ranging from animations, paintings, installation works, and photography to create surreal works. One example being the graffiti-like drawings in a large but enclosed space which seem to be turned into a labyrinthine spectacle (Paramodelic Graffiti, 2005). The versatility of their artistic practice lies in the exercise of diverse mediums, and especially in the manipulation of the space in large installation pieces. The two are currently based in Kyoto.
Paramodel是生于1971年的Hayashi Yasuhiko和生于1976年的Nakano Yusuke之间的一个合作研究，他们都来自于Higashi Osaka（东大阪市），在2003年他们首次将自己的工作室命名为“Paramodel”（帕拉莫）。采用“俗世的天国”作为主题，他们使用各种媒介， 包括从动画片、绘画、装置作品到摄影进行超现实作品创作。在一个庞大却被隔离的空间里放置一幅雕刻状的绘画，这样就似乎变成了一个错综复杂的景象 （《Paramodelic Graffiti》，2005），这只是众多作品中的一个例子。他们艺术实践的多样性在于对不同媒体进行训练，尤其是在控制大型装置设备空间方面。这两个 人目前都在京都。
Sawa Hiraki (择拓)
Sawa Hiraki
eight minutes
2005
video(b+w, silent)
8min. 48sec.
courtesy: the artist and Ota Fine Arts, tokyo
Born 1977, Ishikawa, Japan. Basing his artistic production in London, Sawa uses lo-tech video animation to create poetic dreamscapes - ponderings on ideas of time and motion, innocence and alienation, dislocation and displacement.
Certain leitmotifs recur throughout the films - a child’s rocking horse (Horse (2005) made of high density polyurethane foam and aluminum), migrating animals, model jet planes - objects which play out notions of travel and nomadism, of being at home and thinking of elsewhere. Aiming to challenge our perception, the concept of nomadism and superimposing objects associated with the outside into the interior is best materialized in his highly acclaimed Dwelling, where the interior of a one-bedroom apartment is gradually swarmed with an accumulation of toy jumbo jets, eventually weaving a thick web of air traffic. Sawa currently lives and works in London.
1977年生于日本。在伦敦进行艺术创作，择拓运用低技术录像动画片创造诗歌般的幻境——思考时间和运动，天真和疏远，混乱和移动这些概念。当然， 主题的重现贯穿在这些影片里——一个小孩的摇摆木马（《马》（2005），用高密度聚氨酯泡沫体和铝制作而成），迁徙动物，喷气式模型飞机——那些激发出 旅行意愿以及在家里漫游却思考在别处的东西。为了挑战我们的感觉，流浪和从外到内双重增加物质的概念在他广受称赞的作品《住所》中得到了最完美的实现，这 个作品中一个只拥有单间卧室的公寓逐渐被堆积满了喷气式客机玩具模型，最终编织出一个拥挤的空中交通网络。择拓目前在伦敦生活和工作。
Shimabuku (島袋道造)
Born 1969, Kobe, Japan. Shimabuku is an artist who collects unusual encounters. Inspired by the International Situationist walking tours, he studied in Osaka and in San Francisco before travelling in the different harbours of the world. The artist experiments all kinds of interaction with living beings to transgress the stereotypical limits of physics and the imaginary, producing many performance projects, installation works as well as web projects (Moon Rabbit of the Dia Center of the Arts.) Major projects include, Octopus Road Project (1991), Octopus and the Pigeon (1993), When the Sky was Sea (2005), all installation videos or performance works. His participation in international exhibitions range from the 2001 Yokohama Triennale, 2003 Venice Biennale to group exhibitions in the Pompidou Center, Paris and the Hayward Gallery, London, while his recent work, How to live together of 2006 was exhibited in the 27th Sao Paolo Biennale. Shimabuku currently lives in Berlin.
1969年出生于日本的神户港市，島袋道造是一个搜集特殊冲突的艺术家。受到国际徒步旅行的启发，在沿着世界各个海港旅行之前，他先后在日本大阪和 旧金山学习。島袋道造对与其他生物之间的各种互动进行试验，进而超越刻板的物理和想象的界限，产生很多表演作品、装置作品以及网络作品（在Dia艺术中心 展览的《月野兔》。）主要的作品包括《章鱼公路》（1991），《章鱼和鸽子》（1993），《当天空变成大海》（2005），以及所有装置录像或表演作 品。他参加的国际展览包括2001横滨国际当代艺术三年展，2003威尼斯双年展蓬皮杜中心的群展，巴黎和海达威画廊，英国，同时他2006年的近作《如 何共同生存》在27届圣保罗双年展展出。島袋道造目前生活在柏林。
Takamine Tadasu (高嶺格)
Common Sense
2004
Video Installation
Dimensions variable
Born 1968, Kagoshima, Japan, Takamine is well known for his confronting performance work, sculpture and video practice. Always challenging, drawing on disparate cultural references, Takamine strives to create works that provoke spectators’ interaction in uncomfortable and questionable ways by applying issues between politics, sexuality and the body. To these issues, he implores the method of criticism; of criticizing and of being criticized. Open to working across media, Takamine is not adamant about any particular method of expression, saying: “I select the effective method on the spot according to the given conditions and situation.” Takamine currently lives and works in Kyoto.
高嶺格1968年生于日本鹿儿岛。高嶺格因其对抗性表演作品、雕刻和录像实验而闻名。他一直挑战绘画出迥异的文化内涵，通过采用政治、性和尸体之间 的问题，高嶺格试图努力创作一种令人不舒服的和质疑的方式激发观众互动的作品。他探索针对这些问题进行批判、批评以及被批评的方式。通过媒体公开创作，高 嶺格并不执着于任何特殊的表达方式，他说“根据给定的条件和环境在某种状况下，我选择最有效的方式。” 高嶺格目前在京都生活和工作。
Tanaka Koki (田中功起)
Everything is Everything
2006-2007
8 channel DVDs, color, sound and many materials in daily
use and many materials from the museum
dimension variable
each DVDs are 00:01:31, 00:01:50, 00:01:20,00: 01:22, 00:01:34,
00:01:31, 00:01:19, 00:01:48.
re-Installation at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
Born 1975, Tochigi, Japan. Tanaka shows his interest in the fleeting, instantaneous moments of our everyday lives, which are meticulously captured in his famous video installations. A series of events within the linear span of time; cause and effect, source and consequence, are at once given autonomy and independency as a single, self-sustaining event at the hands of Tanaka’s filming techniques. His meticulous attentiveness on seizing the banal, mundane moments, and transforming them into an essence of their own specificity is what is significant his works. The deliberate choice of filming the mundane is a reflection of his maintenance of the stance of film as separate from the artists’ mode of expressions; his works are not a reflection of his aesthetics, nor his intentions. Tanaka currently lives and works in Tokyo.
1975年生于日本枥木。田中功起对我们日常生活中短暂瞬间显示出了兴趣，在他的装置里也精心地体现了他的这种兴趣。线性跨度的时间里存在一系列事 情：起因和影响，资源和结果，它们都被立刻被视为个体、独立的事件，借助田中功起的电影技术被赋予了自治性和独立性。细致入微地捕捉陈腐而平凡的瞬间并把 它们转换成为自身特性的要素，这正是他的作品的标志。他主张电影应独立于艺术家众多表达方式，慎重地选择拍摄平凡的世界是对这种主张的反映；他的作品并非 是他审美的反映，也不是他自己的意图。田中功起目前生活和工作在东京。
Ujino Muneteru (宇治野宗輝)
THE ROTATORS
Jan. 2006, Alive Art Matsuri Vol. 1, Kanagawa, Japan
household electrical appliance and mixed media, variable dimensions
photo by Masaki Hirano
Copyright ©2006 Ujino Muneteru, All rights reserved.
Born 1964, Tokyo, Japan, Ujino’s predominantly plays with and materializes the gap between the tangible and in the intangible. An example of such work is the use of correct Japanese and incorrect English in his katakana-shaped sculptures. His “sculpturesque” painted “forms” carved out English-loaned words such as “y-shirt” and “g-pan” in katakana, which at first glance can easily be mistaken for calligraphic representations. Katakana as a means to literalize the sound, the intangible, and also that it is carved from a dense material such as wood, the tangible, gives Ujino’s works additional significance in the related idea of crossed linguistic and cultural signals. Ujino exposes the evolution of the Japanese language, its misuse of the Western language and simultaneously, its consumption of Western culture on its own terms. Parallel to his creation of sculpture-like works based on the sounds of English-loaned words, Ujino continuously explores with physical objects that connote tangibility and intangibility. His accumulation of practical, everyday-life objects all are representatives of the tangible in our life. However, he experiments with the double-dimensions of those materials by creating also an intangible effect, namely sounds. His amalgamation of physical objects that surround him and enable him to compose sounds and noises from them, shows the flux between the two bipolar concepts.
Ujino currently lives and works in Tokyo.
1964年生于日本东京。宇治野宗輝拥有卓越的处理、物化真实和虚拟之间鸿沟的能力。这种作品的一个范例是在他的片假名状的雕塑中同时运用正确的日 语和错误的英语。他“雕刻”般着色的【形式”】在片假名中雕刻出了诸如“y-shirt”和“g-pan”之类的文字，这些文字乍看上去容易被误认为是片 假名的文字式表达。片假名成为一种解释声音、无形物和类似于木头的密质材料雕刻的、形物体的方式，为宇治野宗輝的作品在语言学和文化信号方面的融合概念上 额外提供了重要意义。宇治野宗輝揭示日语的演进过程，日语对西方语言的误用，同时还有日语在自己术语里对西方文化的借用。与他基于借鉴英语词汇发音而创作 的雕刻状作品并行的是，宇治野宗輝一直在探索实际物体，那些实际事物隐含着有形和无形的东西。他的实践积累，日常生活物品都体现在我们的活中。然而，他通 过创作，用那些材料所进行的二维实验也是一个无形结果，即声音。他对自己周围实际存在的，及能使他从中编排出声音和噪声的事物的合并显示出两个相反概念之 间的融合。宇治野宗輝目前在东京生活和工作。
Watanabe Go (渡辺豪)
face(”portrait”)-10
108(W)x120(H)cm(image size）
digital print, translucent film and light box
2006
With transparent complexion and large, deep eyes, the android, cyborg-like, or even albino young girl stares at us. Although at first glance, each face may look identical, when close attention is paid to details such as the start of the hairline, the expression and colors of the eyes, and positioning of moles, one clearly becomes to notice the distinctness in each of the faces. Watanabe generates these female faces by first taking individual photographs of different models, digitally manipulating them, and then pasting them onto a computer-generated original mold. This process which resembles that of a skin transplant diminishes individual facial features to a minimum. Back in 2000 when he first began with the series, Watanabe literally painted the models in white, took a portrait photograph of them and displayed the photograph in a light-box. However, since 2002, he has been working on CG images. Neither distinguishable as human nor inanimate objects, the autonomous images that exist solely as superficial appearances problematize the relationship between the representation and the inner reality when discussing the origin of beauty. Furthermore, transparency of the images intensified by the light-box installation forces the viewer to question the reality of human existence. Portraits that are anonymous with lifeless features appear to eliminate all personal identities, but, in fact, they make the viewers become more aware of the features that are lost and missing.
透明的肤色和大大的凹陷的眼睛，仿佛是人形的机器人、或是合成电子人，甚或是白化病的年轻女孩直视着我们。初瞥每一张脸看起来全然一致，可近看诸如 发迹线始处、眼睛的颜色、眼睛的神情、痣的位置之类细节，每一张脸的独特之处清晰可感。这些女性面庞的生成过程如下：渡边豪首先照下不同模特的照片，用数 字设备加工，然后将其贴上计算机建的素模。这一模仿皮肤移植的过程将个体脸部差异减为最小。在2000年刚开始这一系列时，渡边豪直白地用白色涂抹模特 儿，拍下她们的肖像照片，然后陈列于灯箱中。然而，自2002年起，他一直用CG图像工作。这些图像，既不可辩为人，亦不可辨为无生命的物，仅靠表面性自 成一律的这些图像，质问了诉说“美”的表象与内在的关系。更进一步，由灯箱装置加强的图像的透明性迫使观者质疑人类的实际存在。这些匿名的、无机的肖像， 丧失了其个人的面部特征，却使观者意识到在辨别个人性中那些特征的重要性。
Xijing Men (西京人)
Xijing Men is a collaborative group consisting of the Japanese artist Ozawa Tsuyoshi（小沢剛）, the Chinese artist Chen Shaoxiong, and the Korean artist gimhongsok （金泓锡）. They have chosen the group name Xijing Men to mean the people living in Xijing, the subject matter of their work in the Beautiful New World exhibition. They have chosen the group name Xijing Men, which means the people living in Xijing, to be the subject of their work in the Beautiful New World exhibition.
Ozawa Tsuyoshi was born in 1965 in Tokyo, Japan. He currently lives and works in Saitama Prefecture （埼玉県）. Since the 1990s he has been considered the leading artist among young artists in Japan. His works address socio-political issues, reflecting real-life situations and materials against themes of dialogue, interactions, and communication. Chen Shaoxiong was born in 1962 in Shantou, China. He currently works and lives in Guangzhou. He is interested in projects dealing with ‘cities,’ and over the years he has been working in collaboration with Ozawa on other city project, Guangdong Tokyo(2006). Gimhongsok was born in 1964 in Seoul, Korea. He currently lives and works in Seoul. He focuses on the phenomenon of the break-up of personal identity through the three themes of language, action, and social system.
Beijing (北京)and Nanjing(南京) are actual cities in China, while Tokyo (東京) is an actual city in Japan. But Xijing (西京) does not exist anywhere. Accordingly, the goal of their collaborative work for this exhibition is to create a virtual city called Xijing and to ultimately register it in the Google and other formal maps. The idea of artists from the three countries creating a city in virtual space evokes a utopian nostalgia in the sub-conscious of the viewer.
西京人(Xijing Men)是一个艺术家合作团体，由日本艺术家小泽刚（小沢剛，Ozawa Tsuyoshi）、中国艺术家陈劭雄和韩国艺术家金泓锡（金泓锡，gimhongsok）组成。他们选择“西京人”为团体的名字，并将其解释为“生活在 西京的人”，而西京，则是他们参加“美丽新世界”展的主题。
1965年，小泽刚出生于日本东京。他目前在日本琦玉县工作、生活。自1990年代，他被视为处于日本年轻艺术家中的前列。他的作品以对话、互动和 交流为主题，提出社会政治议题，反映现实材料和境遇。1962年，陈劭雄生于中国汕头。他目前在中国广州工作、生活。他对处理“城市”的项目感兴趣，数年 来，他与小泽合作其它城市项目——2006年的“广东东京”（Guangdong Tokyo）。1964年，金泓锡生于韩国首尔。他目前在首尔工作、生活。他通过语言、行动和社会制度三个主题，聚焦个人认同的破裂。
北京、南京是中国实际存在的城市，而东京，则是日本一座真实的城市。西京却在哪里都不存在。于是，他们为此次展览合作的目标是创造一座叫“西京”的 虚拟城市，并最终在谷歌（Google)和其它正式地图中注册它。来自三个国家的艺术家在虚拟空间创建一座城市的想法，在观众的潜意识中，激起一种乌托邦 式的乡愁。
Yanagi Miwa (やなぎみわ)
During the 1990s, when Japanese culture was epitomized by the word, “kawaii,” Yanagi’s shoujo-motif Elevator Girl series, from a short-sighted view, surely seemed overlap with the cultural temper of the time. However, in actuality, this quasi-cultural symbolization takes on a deeper level of interest, leading the viewer into a more complex and rich source of historical and cultural essence, giving Yanagi wide international acclaim. Furthermore, My Grandmother series from 2000 represent the imagined 50-years-later images of several young women, using photographs as its medium. The narrative, philosophies of life, and temporality that is embodied within the photographic image sublimates the personal imagination into a universal one. This series, which established Yanagi’s international notability, deal with value judgments of beauty and social issues, such as aging population. These social issues are broken down into stories that are all the more personal, intimate and real through the long-term engagement of process with real-life models, exerting strong positive attitudes and dignity in each of their own lives and futures. The models’ views of doom and rebirth are somewhat influences from contemporary anime and mangas. Yanagi articulates that although these collective cultural memories and encounters should be acknowledged as such, each of the models’ outlook on life are distinct in every way, displaying a wide spectrum of narrative in each work. It is this characteristic in Yanagi’s works that stimulates each viewer to contemplate on their own futures with optimistic anticipation.
在1990年代，日本文化用“可爱”（ かわいい，kawaii）一词来概括，近观Yanagi以少女为主题的“电梯女孩”（Elevator Girl）系列，它似乎全然与当时的文化气质交叠。然而，事实上，这一准文化表征有其更深层的趣味，将观者引入一种更为复杂和丰富的历史与文化精髓的渊源 中，这亦为Yanagi赢得了广泛的国际声誉。更进一步，自2000年开始的“我的祖母”(My Grandmother)系列中，数位年轻女性所想象的50年后的自己的形象由摄影媒介实现。摄影图像内含的叙事、生活哲学和时间性将个人想象升华为一种 普世的想象。这一系列处理的议题为对“美”与长者人群的价值判断，奠定了Yanagi的国际声望。这些社会性议题，通过艺术家与真实生活中的模特们的长期 交流，分化为更个人、更亲密和更真实的故事，赋予她们自己的生活与未来强烈的正面态度和尊严。模特们对于毁灭与重生的看法多少受当代动漫的影响， Yanagi指出，虽然这些集体的文化记忆与遭遇应当得到承认，但模特中的每一位对生活的看法从各方面说都是独特的，在每一件作品中展现了叙事的宽广范 围。正是Yanagi作品的这一特点，激起每一位观者以乐观的期盼注视自己的未来。