THEME #46Winners2023AUG

PLANT LIFE

SHORT LIST

DETAIL

Statement

Anonymous Plants [Honorable Mention]

After I gave birth to my son, I started walking around the same places around my house in the suburbs almost every day with him. I wondered what kind of the scenery my son, who was about 80 cm tall in the stroller, was seeing, and I came to notice weeds that I had been unconscious of them before. Each one was different, and even the withered ones looked beautiful when the light lit them.

Profile

Tae Nakayama

Born in Japan. Graduated from Film and New Media, Tokyo National University of the Arts. She creates works that build new relations between humans and images based on themes derived from daily life.

Jury selection

I would like to also congratulate Tae Nakayama and making such a great little series of images. What touched me so much about this work was not only that Tae Higa took to a camera to make images whilst out of work taking care of his or her daughter, but almost imagining, seeing and feeling through the child’s eye who at the time of making this work was being wheeled around their neighborhood in a buggy hence with the child’s view of the outside world the images were all made from about 80cm, roughly the same height as the child’s point of view.

For me this was a concept, but these images feel like pure love to the point of how we often migrate other humans senses into our own and see and feel what others do or should I say, how we imagine them to experience things.

I wanted to acknowledge the work and acknowledge the experience of a parent for whom many will empathize. I have experienced this myself and related to the work very much. On attending a Billie Eilish concert in the summer of 2023 with my two daughters, I felt like I was channeling my daughters experience of the day through their eyes only.

Thank you Tae Higa and congratulations !