MIHO SHIMIZU
EN / JPAdventures with kites
Chasing the Shadows
- Homage to Soeung Vannara (2024)
Eyes of the Sky (2022)
Screen (2020)
Screen
Since the pandemic, I have been thinking of isolation and the new norms. I often felt fragmented both physically and mentally, which affected my state of my mind. I felt pressure to connect with others and to society, yet this did not always work positively with me, as it was not so clear whether this was my desire or an imposed one. Online meetings became the new norm yet this enforced my feeling of isolation rather than collective togetherness. I often hear my voice echo and find it uncomfortable talking to a screen where everyone is facing me including my own face. This made me think of the fragmentation of presence, being/and not being here nor there at the same time, which is not always pleasant.
Combined with my desire to fly a kite in Vietnam and this unsettling feeling I get from online communication, I asked a kite artisan, Mr.Quyền to make a set of eye-like kites and fly them. I was looking at the history of the blue screen in film making, and thought that the blue is somehow a device to transport one to another. Inserting oneself to another place. It became as if I was asking someone to complete my desire, but with them taking part in it at the same time. This idea and the gaze that connects people online were somehow inter-mixed. The string of the kite also connects you with an object at far, physically, and affirms the presence of a person. This connection with others and grounding my presence through this connection is reflected conceptually in this piece. It could be that my eyes are in the sky, looking at Vietnam, in place of my presence.
Screen, Blue Project, Vietnam Fine Art University, MAP 2020 organised by Heritage Space, 2020. Mr. Quyen preparing bamboos at his garden.
Screen, Blue Project, Vietnam Fine Art University, MAP 2020 organised by Heritage Space, 2020