Yu Tsukada | printing / poiesis—On Uro Ei's "image 253, 449, 665, 1173 b mod" (Part 2)
This essay discusses Uro Ei's production process, focusing on the relationship between printing technology and painterly qualities, and the strategy of obscuring the work's status within the art world.Summary
This article, the second part of a critique on Uro Ei's exhibition "image 253, 449, 665, 1173 b mod," details the artist's creation process. This process involves selecting past photographs without previewing them, blurring the images using applications and p5.js code, and then printing them after adjusting printer settings—a process characterized by constant trial and error. Uro refers to their work as "mimetic painting" (擬態絵画), suggesting they are creating "painting by other means," echoing Gerhard Richter's statement about creating photographs differently. By employing industrial "technology" like a large UV printer, Uro materializes "art" by subjecting specific perceptions and values inherent in painting and photography to a kind of centrifugal force. Furthermore, Uro employs a strategy of ambiguity regarding the work's status toward the art world institution itself. By presenting images of the work in storage or being held mid-air, and by staging the exhibition space to resemble a temporary storage area (e.g., a canvas leaning against the wall face-down), Uro destabilizes the very ground upon which the viewer stands while presenting graphic images imbued with eerie colors and languid psychedelia.
(Source：artscape)