Japanese Blue | Norio Kobayashi | Aka Aka 2025
This book is brand new!
"Characterized by its man-made blue colors, Japanese Blue can be situated within the lineage of Kobayashi's landscape works, such as Landscapes and First Light, which explore both visible and concealed aspects of urban and natural environments across Japan. Observing the blue tarps directs the eye to nameless, makeshift places, revealing temporary landscapes that most people would overlook.
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This peony blue, chosen for its camouflage quality in natural settings, merges with the landscape and, like Rubin's vase, reverses our perception of "figure" and "ground." Viewed as an aesthetic object, the blue tarp comes forward while the landscape recedes; when the landscape is "figure," the tarp becomes "ground." Japanese Blue aims for this back-and-forth gaze. Things lost from the past and things yet to come flicker as blue remnants within and beyond the photographs. On the surface of blue, past 'now,' present 'now,' and future 'now' are continuously restored." - From the afterword by Yuki Kasama