all images courtesy the artist
“In the end, selfies are avatars: Mini-Me’s that we send out to give others a sense of who we are,” concluded the actor James Franco, in a piece he penned for the NYT, finishing off a year in which Oxford named “selfie” word of the year. “The selfie is the new way to look someone right in the eye and say, ‘Hello, this is me’.”
But artist Noriko Yabu takes the photographic art form to new levels. Or should I say, new depths. Positioning a camera above her immersed self, the 33-year old artist snaps shots of her eyes, hair and other body parts as she moves around underwater. Air bubbles released from within add all the more drama to the dream-like series titled Suisou (水 葬). The clever title can be read as “aquarium.” But in a slightly morbid twist, the MFA graduate chose to substitute the typical character (槽) with another one (葬)), reserved for funerals or burials.
However, there is nothing about the series that would suggest an end or death. Rather, the enchanting portraits would suggest rebirth. After all, water is where it all started out. Perhaps this is Yabu’s way of announcing a new self to the world. It’s worth noting that the sub-title for the series is “another myself.”
source: featureshoot
February 22, 2014 at 1:52 pm
Amazing and truly beautiful. I was expecting something like this: http://86.109.29.5/categories/94.-under-water