CANARY (WITH OBI)

Lieko Shiga
CANARY (WITH OBI)

Photographs: Lieko Shiga

Publisher: AKAAKA

80 pages

Year: 2007

ISBN: 978-4-903545-21-9

Comments: Hardcover with illustrated dust jacket and obi band, 27,7 x 41,7 cm, color photographs, some marks on the front and back endpapers and 2 tears on the obi strip which have been repaired, otherwise in good condition. the binding is weakened. But the book is sewn. Extremely scarce!

CANARY presents a beguiling body of work by a young photographer. The constructed images are steeped in a world of magical realism charged with a primal and animistic immediacy. The world in Shiga Lieko's hands seems to be pregnant with dynamism and movement, which at times can also be threatening. She combines local myths with stories of ordinary people and their personal memories, feelings and experiences. She thus creates fantastical and often dramatic images that make reference to the twilight area between dream and reality. Her often-dark work is deeply rooted in the Japanese folkloric tradition and the supernatural as a self-evident presence.

Throughout the work, the viewer is prompted to speculate how the photographs were created. What was her process? What aspects have been captured by the camera and what has been adulterated.