Kenryou Gu

Curator’s Text

Title: 《Map Sampling_Fujiyoshida》

Kenryou Gu uses a unique technique he calls "digital weaving," in which multiple digital photographs are "woven" by hand, pixel by pixel, to create photographic works in which multiple images seem superimposed. Inspired by the optical illusion multiple dyed threads create when they are overlapped during the yarn-dyed fabric process, this work uses "digital weaving" to weave in maps of various periods in Fujiyoshida City, and prints them on two sheets of translucent fabric to create an almost holographic three-dimensional image.

The history of Fujiyoshida, which has seen the Fujiko (religious worship and the pilgrimage culture of Mount Fuji) and the decline and development of the textile industry, is evident in the multiple maps of different ages and purposes that have been “digitally-weaved” together. Gu says that maps are images that each have historical and situational roles, and their cross-sections can give us a glimpse of a “living” history. In this work, created through on-site field research, The holographic illusions in Gu’s work appear and disappear, sometimes undulating and shifting in accordance with the movement of our eyes from the upper platform, and the "living” history of Fujiyoshida is summoned as an holographic image between the overlapping fabrics.

Artist Profile

Kenryou Gu

Kenryou Gu was born in Kyoto and raised in Shanghai, and now lives and works in Kyoto. He earned his BFA in Photography at Kyoto University of the Arts (formerly Kyoto University of Art and Design), studying abroad at the École nationale supérieure de la photographie in Arles, France.
Gu’s work captures at once the sensations of the body moving through space as well as the accumulation of sights and scenes, then uses photography as a device through which to transform and reconfigure this information in wide-ranging ways. His unique method of weaving together time and space uncovers latent and unknown contexts that lie behind the information he collects.
Solo exhibitions include Aperto 18, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2023), A Part of There is Here (Yukiko Mizutani Gallery, Tokyo, 2021), 15972 Sampling (SFERA, Kyoto, Kyotographie 2019), Utopia (Gallery Water, Tokyo, Tokyographie 2018), Wu-Mai (Wacoal Study Hall Kyoto Gallery, Kyoto,2018), Utopia (Former Junpu Elementary School, Kyoto,2018). Group exhibitions include ENCOUNTERS (ANB TOKYO,Tokyo,2020), Collision point on the dimensions (The 5th Floor,Tokyo,2021).Awards include Grand Prix at KG+ Award (2018) and Grand Prix at sanwacompany Art Award / Art in the House (2019).

Cooperation: Yumiko Chiba Associates
Jen XU, Patrick TSAI,OYAMADA Co., Ltd.
Material provided by: Fujiyoshida City
Map Source: 25,001:1 topographic map published by Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, 20,000:1 official map
*Created by processing the source map