This is a Mirror, after Camnitzer (excerpt), 2022, two-channel digital video, 15m 8s
This is a Mirror / night (excerpt), 2022, single-channel digital video, 2m 21s
Midori Harima (born Yokohama, Japan; lives Fujisawa, Japan) received a BA from Joshibi University of Art and Design, Japan. Her work has been exhibited in multiple venues both nationally and internationally including Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA; Ulterior Gallery, New York, NY; and Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto and Fujisawa City Art Space, both Japan.
Statement from the Artist:
This is a mirror, after Camnitzer was made in response to Luis Camnitzer’s essay, Printmaking: A colony of the arts (1999) and his first conceptual art piece This is a Mirror, You are an Written Sentence (1968). By using structures inherent to printmaking – invisibility, unknowability, unpredictability and things not being able to be seen from the front, I have redefined and reformed printmaking as a conceptual translation and a technology of mediation.
In this age of AI and environmental issues such as shortage of natural resources, This is a Mirror, after Camnitzer is based on a thought experiment that envisions the eventual disappearance of paper. I used paper as also a metaphor for the human body and recorded my own body doing bold, repetitive actions filmed with a digital camera from the front and an 8mm film camera from behind to create a two-channel video installation. This work de-centers the artmaking process through an act which becomes possible solely when the actor is only able to see from behind.