Artist: Hideyuki Ishibashi

Following the tremendous success of his 2019 Présage series at the gallery, Japanese artist Hideyuki Ishibashi returns with a compelling new exhibition titled Portraits.

Kyoto, 1916. Nestled in the Gojozaka region, pottery thrives as a flourishing industry. Here, a vibrant community of potters specializing in the art of Kyo-yaki, a ceramic craft dating back to the 5th century. Each day, some twenty traditional kilns roar to life, infusing the air with the aroma of burning pinewood that permeates streets, shops, and homes alike. In an era increasingly defined by automation and industrial methods, this bustling commerce underscores Japan's deep reverence for ancestral techniques. Each piece, designed with the utmost care, embodies both the history and the very essence of the community life. This is where the story of Fujihira Togei begins. Little did the company know then, that its ceramics would one day become part of Japan's historical heritage.

1944. In the midst of World War II, Japan is struggling with a shortage of resources, unable to sustain the production of metal-based military weapons. Under orders from the national army, pottery factories are repurposed to manufacture ceramic grenades. Fujihira Togei's potters soon adapt to the task, despite the constraints. Due to a severe labour shortage, they were joined by schoolgirls. Yet, in the strangest of circumstances, the art of Kyo-yaki continues to be passed down. As a result, a series of handcrafted grenades is produced, each one imperfect, singular in size and weight. Each one is polished, as a token of the aesthetic care typically associated with objects crafted by this centuries-old method. At the end of the war, the tangible traces of this event might have disappeared, leaving behind only fragmented stories. And yet, rather than destroying the remaining grenades, as ordered by the army, some 240 of them are buried in a sealed box, meters underground near the factory.

It wasn't until 2016, during a development project near the ceramics workshop, that the box would see the light of day again. The discovery, of tremendous historical value, brought together the authorities and archaeologists, who soon launched extensive excavations across the site. With traditional pottery factories becoming increasingly rare, and only four kilns remaining in the region, the historical and cultural preservation of Gojozaka's heritage became imperative. In this context, after winning a call for a research-creation project organised in collaboration with the French Institute of Japan in Kansai and Le Fresnoy, Japanese artist Hideyuki Ishibashi embarked on the pursuit of Fujihira Togei's memory. First, the desire to expose the grenades to sunlight, which they had not seen since the end of the war, led the photographer to the idea of fixing their shadow. To achieve this, Ishibashi placed each of the 240 grenades, one by one, onto cyanotype sheets at different times of the day. The resulting images, each marked by a unique hour of exposure, express on paper the presence of time weighing down on the grenades. Then, using the cyanotypes as negatives, the artist produced gum bichromate prints incorporating earth from the crate and soot from the factory’s furnaces. As a result, Hideyuki Ishibashi created a remarkable series of photographs charged with history, where light and shadow blur the visual representation of reality and brilliantly evoke the passage of time.

In this solo exhibition by Hideyuki Ishibashi, titled “Portraits”, we present a selection of fifty of these exceptional prints, from February 6 to March 29. Through a thoughtful scenography, this opus visually reconstructs the story told by the artist: one of a Kyoto pottery workshop, of an ancestral craft passed down through generations, but also of a group of schoolgirls whose story might have remained forever buried. In the distinctive singularity of each grenade lies their portrait.

Hideyuki Ishibashi was born in Kobe, Japan, in 1986. He obtained BFA at Nihon University College of Art, faculty of Photography in 2009, Tokyo and at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains (promotion Chantal Akerman) in 2018. His work, which is mainly expressed through photography, has been presented at international events such as Paris Photo, the Unseen Photo Festival and Breda Photo, and at solo and group exhibitions in Japan, South Korea, England, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Holland. His first book “Présage” was published by IMA Photobooks in 2015, and his second publication “Other Voices” was published by the(M)éditions in France in 2019.

The artist wishes to thank the following partners for tenir precious support: Institut français du Japon - Kansai, Villa Kujoyama, Fondation Bettencourt Schueller, Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains, Kyoto Prefectural Board of Education, Mum Art produce, Poterie of Fujihira, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Kyoto Seika University, Kyoto Fine Arts, Emaon, Inc, DMG Mori Co.,Ltd, Kujime/ Kyoritsu Dr's Lab. Inc. and by 164 PARIS/Lou Lou Co.Ltd.