Year: 2022
Medium: oil, chrome, acid, dirt on canvas
Dimensions: 228.6 x 162.6 cm (113 5/8 x 64 in.)
Acquired from Kotaro Nukaga, 2022
This work was exhibited at the artist’s first solo exhibition in Tokyo with the same title. It was slightly different from the rest of his exhibits, but this work was given the most symbolic role. In this exhibition, Hod presented a series of paintings based on images of found photos, alongside his representative work, “The Life We Left Behind” series characterized by the chrome mirror surfaces. Found photo is a past reality left by a stranger that revived in the present by being replaced with a painting. It is equivalent to giving new life to the ghosts of the past. Photography is a technique that optically preserves a scene of reality, but it can also be understood as a mirrored projection of the likeness of reality. This work was purposedly placed together with “The Life We Left Behind”, which is also in Ueshima Collection. No doubt it was done intentionally by the artist as two works are mirrors of each other. While “The Life We Left Behind” reflects objects physically, this work, although it does not seem to be reflecting anything, vividly captures spirituality. The approximation of colors and the contrast of composition both form a mental similarity, or in photographic sense, they clearly show the contrasting relationship of the negative and the positive.
