Year: 1990-2020
Medium: urethane resin paint on chromogenic analog print mounted on wooden panel
Dimensions: 230 x 170 x 10 cm (90 1/2 x 67 x 4 in.)
Acquired from Take Ninagawa, 2023
Ohtake’s wide range of artistic forms. The period over which it was produced is noteworthy- three decades, from 1990 to 2020, are sealed into this work. This “Retina” series is inspired by a Polaroid photograph that should have been discarded due to faulty exposure. This abstract red screen, the result of over-processing that led to a failure to capture the object's form, prompts the viewers to question the original intent behind the photograph. The “retina” is the organ within the eye that receives light and sends images to the brain in the form of information. In the context of a camera, the film serves this function, and during development, the process is repeated when the photographic paper receives the image through an enlarger. Works in the “Retina” series point to the simultaneously optical and psychological phenomenon of an image being captured by the human eye and “developed” in the brain. Ohtake builds up a collage-like accumulation in his pieces, and this piece is no exception. One finds an iterative development of the image- the artist’s eye, the camera, and the enlargement. Then there is the addition of physical layers, with a thick, wooden panel support, the print itself, and a sealing layer of urethane resin. And 30 years of time is also piled on top. The passage of all this time must surely have caused significant alterations in the printed photograph. The smoothly finished surface layer of urethane resin seals and preserves the time, materials, and phenomena that have accumulated in the work. This encapsulation serves as a reflection of Ohtake’s philosophy on the very nature of the image.
