Kimiko Yoshida Reincarnates in YoshidaRorschach
Photos courtesy of Galerie Dukan
Since 2001, Kimiko Yoshida’s self-portraits have adhered to an unvarying conceptual protocol: always the same subject (herself), the same point of view (frontal), the same lighting (indirect), the same chromatic principle (the subject is painted the same colour as the ground) and the same format (square). Thus the same figure is repeated, but never identically: the more it is repeated, the more it differs. The more it is the same, the more it changes.
– Jean-Michel Ribettes
Japanese photographer Kimiko Yoshida has assumed several roles over the years. With each character, and with every costume, she transposes the significance of simply capturing a self-portrait, through inverting the importance of each photo into a metaphysical space, drawing the focus away from the subject and onto the act of self-transformation.
More than simply playing a mere caricature of some iconic historical figure, or the subject of a famous painting, she has reimagined herself as the Geisha Marie-Antoinette, as the bright blue chromatic Mao Bride, or as countless other reincarnations.
Her commitment to losing all sense of self in the selfie has evolved into a new technique, one in which she adds an extra layer of distortion and an additional deterrent from seeing what was formerly known as Kimiko Yoshida.
Throughout her new exhibit YoshidaRorschach at the Galerie Dukan, in the outskirts of Paris, she explores the “Rorschach” method – a psychological inkblot test based on the viewers’ perceptions. The act of layering paint onto her self-portraits is an evolution from Yoshida’s normal transformations. It further distorts the subject, who disappears into her own self-portraits more than ever before.