On Matsubara's ephemeral multimedia interrogations of memory and time from the past decade

Japanese artist Ken Matsubara (born 1949) makes multimedia works that incorporate video, photographs and found objects to investigate the memories that reside deep within our consciousness. His flickering video images projected onto surfaces of objects—shallow bowls filled with liquid, broken mirrors, reflective vitrines—are dreamlike and ephemeral. Memories are often embodied in images, and can contain knowledge from the far-reaching past, extending beyond individual experience and recollection. Though his works are often site-specific, Matsubara often creates variations on a core idea, as in his Repetition–Book series, in which he uses found photographs from various locations and makes new photographs and videos in those same locations. By incorporating the found antique photographs with his own new images, he reveals a dialogue between past and present, poetically capturing moments in the passage of time. This monograph offers an overview of his work from the last decade.

Text by: Bettina Pelz