Kensaku Kakimoto’s Photo Exhibition, Featuring AI-Infused Artworks, Set to Illuminate Tokyo and Osaka

“As is,” a photography exhibition by Kensaku Kakimoto, will open at Canon Gallery S in Shinagawa, Tokyo, on Friday, November 24, followed by Canon Gallery Ginza and Canon Gallery Osaka.

Kensaku Kakimoto is a visual artist who has produced numerous commercial films and music videos, including the short film “TAIYO,” directed the film “Koisuru Parasite,” and created the title backdrop for the NHK historical drama “Seiten wo Sukuke.

The exhibition focuses on works shot by Kakimoto as his private work. At Canon Gallery S, a total of 29 works, including new works, will be exhibited, such as the “Time Tunnel” series, in which he transformed his past works using AI that learned from images and videos of his works, and abstract landscape works.

On Saturday, December 2, an event featuring Kakimoto, Kobayashi, and Ohki is scheduled to be held. The event will include a talk about “en,” produced by Kobayashi and his creative group Butterfly Studio.

At Canon Gallery Ginza, 21 landscape works will be exhibited. At Canon Gallery Osaka, 18 works from the “Trimming” series will be exhibited, focusing on objects that casually exist in society, and reproducing them as new designs by cropping them from a unique perspective.

The title of the exhibition is “As is” (as it is, as it is), which refers to his lifework of photographing countless “dots,” such as casual sounds and objects, in their “as is” state.

Encapsulating the memories of anonymous droplets through the lens of photography. Life, in analogy, resembles the insignificance of an unnamed raindrop. Even within my diminutive physical existence, I am daily inundated with a myriad of information. Naturally, the tapestry of daily existence is woven with sounds like the morning melody of awakening birds, the rising steam from boiling water, the laughter of school-bound children, the chiming ringtone of emails, the rustling of plants in the wind, droplets rebounding on the bathroom floor, the arrival signal of an elevator, footsteps crunching gravel pathways, the river flowing beyond towering buildings, and the rhythmic sway of train cars along the tracks. The drumming resonance of raindrops meeting an umbrella is also part of this symphony. These countless points coexist, bouncing and leaping as society perpetually moves forward. Amidst this dynamic life, the photographs I dedicate my life to capturing suggest a perspective (point) of memories in the present moment. The contrasting information from the expansive nature before me transforms into the shape of a photograph, emanating from the inner core to the outer world through my own being. Similar to how water utilized in daily life transforms into rain, showering the earth and circulating through our world. The nameless, minuscule droplet symbolizes the limit of my physical form. After fulfilling its role, it is once again integrated into the collective entity of the world, perpetuating the cycle. I encapsulate this small droplet, laden with “thoughts” of unfiltered memories, within a photograph. At this moment, I release this “unaltered droplet” into the ongoing journey of time, where it continues to be passed down.

Kensaku Kakimoto Artist Statement