Miwa Yanagi: Yuka, My Grandmother-Series,
2001
©Miwa Yanagi
This is sociology, and hence nothing remarkable. What's remarkable is the
movement of our eyes. It is a gaze that travels back and forth between
image and text. Miwa Yanagi, whose photographs all emit a sense of
inexplicable quietude – even in the case of grandmother Yuka
as she races over a bridge in the side car of a motorcycle with her mouth open
and her red hair flowing (image) – succeeds in making the viewer aware
of his or her own movements to the extent that they become parts of the
work: the lightly craning neck, the barely perceptible adjustment of his
pupils as he or she tries to focus on the porno film playing in the
dominatrix's room.
Miwa Yanagi: Elevator Girl House F1 (left)
Elevator Girl House F1 (right)
©Miwa
Yanagi
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Miwa Yanagi: Elevator Girl House F1 (left)
Elevator Girl House F1 (right)
©Miwa
Yanagi
Miwa Yanagi emphasizes the sexual in nearly all of her
photographs. She hardly ever depicts anything pornographic, but gender
roles form a central motif of her work. Her famous
Elevator Girls exhibit these as clearly as the young women dressed in
priestly costumes standing around a model city at the foot of a flight
of stairs. The uniforms are important; they attest to an
interchangeability. It's not about the one or the other here. It's about
the fact that they're all equally charming. The bared thighs of the one
might be her own thighs, but it's clear that each of them has thighs
that are just as beautiful. The photograph tells us that it's not the
women who decide, but we, the viewers. In an entirely conventional
manner, the photographer doesn't ally herself with the model, but with
the viewer.
That is the truly sexual aspect of Miwa Yanagi's
photographs. They desire what they show, and they show what they make
and have made desirable. Miwa Yanagi's photographs are photographs of
photographs. They reflect upon our gaze, which has been influenced by
photographs. While seducing us, they reveal themselves to us. They do
this with great pleasure and, perhaps even more importantly: with humor.
Arno Widmann was one of the founding editors of the taz, chief editor
at Vogue, cultural editor of the Zeit, and is today the
chief editor of the Berliner Zeitung.
An exhibition of Miwa
Yanagi’s works will be presented from late January through March 31,
2004 at the
Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin.
An interview with Miwa Yanagi by Mako
Wakasa can be found
here.
Translation: Andrea Scrima
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