
sight
- Publisher
- Akaaka Art Publishing
- Year
- 2011
- ISBN
- 978-4-903545-68-4
- Specifications
- Softcover
250 x 215 mm
100 pages
Art direction by Junya Handa
Text by Shihoko Iida
English text with information on each photograph (date, location, film) and the subject credits
A series of portraits, taken around the world, of people watching films at home. Asakai never reveals the screen, so finding out which film the subjects are actually watching can provoke surprise, if not humour: five uncomfortable-looking Europeans are watching The Seventh Seal, an older Japanese woman on the edge of her seat is watching Babe, and a Korean man watches Evangelion 1.11 alone. Beyond these simple pleasures, the work explores the relationship between looking and being looked at: Asakai takes the portraits when her subjects are in a moment of complete concentration on the screen, apparently unaware of the camera, which sets up a complex relationship between the viewer and the viewed.