Reviews of Takahiko iimura——Film, Video, Multimedia (1978-2001)

by Kazuyo Yasuda, Editor
Takahiko iimura Media Institute, Tokyo, Japan, 2001
68 pp., illus.
Reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg

dahlberg@bakernet.com

Film and installation art is now more popular than ever. All four artists listed for the 2004 British Turner Prize exhibited video work. The Tate Modern (UK) recently held its first show of entirely video work. There are also numerous less high profile shows. Visiting a corporate headquarters in London recently, I noticed that video art is now part of the firm's art collection and is displayed in reception areas and in corridors just as one would expect to see paintings and more traditional art displayed. On a recent trip to Australia I was struck by these same trends and the growing visibility of this art in the mainstream press. But, overall, there seems to be a common view that much of this work is of a low standard. Certainly the quality of the work on show at Tate Modern and the recent exhibition of the Turner Prize artists' work confirms this.

It is against this background that Takahiro iimura’s work takes on added significance. iimura has been making experimental films, videos, and installations since the 1960s and has, over the past five decades and produced an outstanding body of truly interesting and challenging work. He is not only one of the pioneers of this art but is now one of its Old Masters whose work towers over so much that is produced today.

Carl Linder has best described the essence of what iimura does when he wrote, "My evaluation of what happens in iimura's films is that a mystical reality emerges from exploring a subject . . . in great detail" (Filmmaking, 1976). In Film Strips II for example, iimura filmed from the television the race riot in Detroit in 1967. Using a complex process he re-photographed an 80 frame section of the film, slowing it down and speeding it up to produce a 12 minute film that shows violent images but ones the viewer cannot easily identify or link to a specific social or historical situation. A flickering effect produced by re-photographing the projected film is speeded up at the end of the film. iimura seems to be warning viewers that, unless something is done, the conflicts revealed by the individual images can only end in a catastrophic nuclear war" and, at end of the film, the flicker effect produces an image "reminiscent of the spherical cloud which occurs at the moment of nuclear destruction" (Scott MacDonald in Yasuda, 2001). iimura has generalised a specific act of violence to make a larger statement about human actions in the world. The film is also interesting to watch and is the product of an innovative technique (the re-photographing at different speeds according to a mathematical formula) that enables iimura to analyse his subject and penetrate its conceptual core. Where mainstream films race across the surface of events propelled by a narrative impulse, those by iimura extend or compress time in order to sink deep beneath the surface of what is seen and reveal something of universal significance.

iimura has described his own conception of cinema as "reflected picture," which is a literal translation of the Japanese word eiga. He contrasts this term with the English "motion picture" and states that his conception of cinema is one that reveals a state rather than a series of actions. Gerhard Richter has said (in The Daily Practice of Painting) that, "The photograph has an abstraction of its own which is not easy to see through". The same can be said of film. iimura is able to reveal this abstraction and rework it to his own ends.

iimura's work is also reminiscent of Hokusai. Some of Hokusai's most famous images from his "36 Views of Mount Fuji," such as the "Sudden Gust of Wind" and the "Great Wave" that combine Japanese and Western artistic traditions to reveal the universal in a very particular moment. In these works Hokusai depicts the chaos and danger that can result from unexpectedly encountering a force of nature.

This small book of collected reviews of iimura's work between 1978 and 2001 brings together 15 reviews, a comprehensive listing of iimura's film, video and installation works available on laser disc and CD, and a list of distributors of his work. Some of the reviews are more like essays and provide significant insights into iimura's work and how it is made. The essays by Scott MacDonald, Malcolm Le Grice, Bruno di Marino, and Daryl Chin are particularly good. Unfortunately, two essays translated from the French by Daniel Charles are almost incomprehensible and the general standard of editing is not as professional as it could be. Overall the book is a good starting point for anyone wanting to explore iimura's work as it provides not only insights into his work but practical advice on how to see it.

iimura is a major artist who deserves significant study both from scholars and artists. Those who currently aspire to make photographic, film, video, and installation art today would do well to study his work.