Veils#12 Beneath the Dragon Tree No.1

This work was exhibited at KOBE ART MARCHÉ 2026 (Kobe Art Marche 2026).

※Room 710Gallery https://art-marche.jp

2026/5/22 (Fri) -24 (Sun)
VIP Preview: 5/22 (Fri) *Open to the Public: 5/23 (Sat) and 5/24 (Sun) for invited guests and members of
the press

A series that visualizes the structure of a world that continues to fluctuate in relationships through light and fluctuation.

The silver on the printing paper is melted by a chemical reaction, and the image floats like a veil. The statue, which should have been fixed, collapses and is rearranged in the hands of gravity and the flow of water. Water flow and slight changes in air overlap, and an irreversible image that is different each time appears. In production, the artist's intention is nothing more than an opportunity, and he captures the state of the world through a phenomenon where birth and collapse occur at the same time.

■Production video

The statue rises in a chemical reaction with light.

The process is recorded as a video.

0:00 — Darkroom/Photogram

0:45 — ● Solaris Lux (baked by sunlight)

1:22 — ● Veils (melting and fluctuating silver)

Focusing on the “State of the World Emerging Through Interconnectedness.”

Through alternative photographic processes employing light and chemical transformation, I work with phenomena that emerge within the interaction between matter and light, attempting to capture the “state of the world” as it continues to fluctuate within its interconnectedness.

In my practice, I primarily utilize the technique of photogram. By placing objects such as plants and minerals directly onto photographic paper and exposing them to light, I capture their images. The traces of light that have touched the object appear directly as an image, visualizing the momentary intersection of time and existence.

The images that appear there are not fixed forms, but the fixation of irreversible events arising through interaction with the environment and specific conditions. The distinctions between past and present, interior and exterior, and the individual and the whole begin to waver, and the image emerges in a different guise each time. Even if the same conditions are prepared, the same image will never appear twice. Moving away from the framework of photography intended for reproduction, an “Aura” emerges as an irreversible phenomenon.

At the root of my work lies a perspective that views the world not as a collection of solitary forms, but as a continuous phenomenon of mutual relationships.

Layers of memory and time are illuminated as images through their encounter with light in the darkroom; appearing as individual existences, yet simultaneously connected to the whole.

Since childhood, I have possessed a profound interest in the acts of living and dying. The sense that a presence or life dwells within all things in nature (Shinra-Bansho) was not acquired as a specific philosophy, but was something naturally internalized through the course of daily life as one living in Japan.

To me, light is not merely a visual element; it is a primordial force that connects time and existence—it is hope itself.

The images that emerge through this light transcend intention or interpretation, quietly revealing the state of the world as something that simply is.

I stand witness to that phenomenon, gazing at that which inevitably reveals itself.

April 2, 2026
Hitoki Koyama