Shirōyasu Suzuki

Shirouyasu Suzuki's first short films shot on 8mm.

The Kazuo Shinohara–designed "House on a Curved Road" was the home of my father, Shirouyasu Suzuki. After my father and mother passed away and the rooms were cleared, only light moves within my memories. By capturing this wavering light, the work is an attempt to grasp how the foundation of private expression exists through changes in the external world.

In April 2000, I started photographing Koichi Ebitsuka's works. Mr. Ebitsuka was a teacher at Tama Art University, and he happened to be appointed concurrently to the second department of art, where I work, and we became close. He was born in 1951, so he is 16 years younger than me. I wanted to think about and experience the "contemporary art" that I hadn't been to. And he, being selfish, visited his atelier and was shown around his works on an island in the Seto Inland Sea. For me, the year 2000 was a year of Ebitsuka-san's sculptures.

A boy rescues a girl who has collapsed in a river, from their exchanges and memories a tale of loneliness and meaningful connection gradually unfolds.

This work was made as a "myth" with the poet Nejime Shoichi as the main character. Nejime Shoichi, who aims to be a reading poet, rides a train to visit senior poet Iwao Abe and asks for the secret of reading. Nejime Shoichi is good at being "naked".

Forcing himself to confront his own 16mm camera each day for over two weeks, Suzuki Shiroyasu initially seems to regret his own idea and indulges in very recalcitrant behaviour. Not until halfway through the project does he address the camera more candidly and start to question his own identity, as well as his relationships with his own milieu and other social structures.

A diary film composed by images where the director, after buying a CineKodak 16 (a pre-war 16mm camera) at a second hand camera shop, starts filming his wife, his newborn baby and his workplace.

This work began when the filmmaker noticed buds sprouting on a dead branch. He realized that "the dry mountain is actually covered with buds". The story revolves around the way the number of objects appears. Three young women perform in order to create the atmosphere of feeling life in the breath of plants.

Film by Shirouyasu Suzuki, 1985, 16mm, 54min

This work is a day and night time-lapse film of the sky over the course of one year from July 1, 1988 to June 30, 1989. At first, the house next door had been demolished and was going to be rebuilt, Suzuki then decided to take a time-lapse photo of how the house was going to be built. However, while shooting, the movement of the clouds amazed the filmmaker who became more interested in capturing them. In September, Emperor Showa fell ill and was reported to be in critical condition, this inspired Suzuki to shoot "the last sky of the Showa era".

In this work, I visited a religious scholar, Shinichi Nakazawa, with the question, "What does 'gazing' mean to people? At the time, he was interested in Japanese ethnic religious beliefs by going to winter festivals, etc., and thought that a view of life as a series of rebirths was cultivated on the basis of a life based on farming. Here, I believe that "looking" provides an opportunity for the mind to be reborn. Created in 1983. The artist was 48 years old. (Suzuki Shiroyasu).

Using stop-motion animation, what Koguchi called 無理矢理アニメ (forced animation), twin sisters Lulu and Lala go through enchanting bodily transformations. The film is a playful and disorienting exploration of sexuality, gender ambiguity, and the chaos of desire, made in the shadow of the AIDS crisis.

In the summer of 1975 I went to a farmhouse in KINASA Village - Nagano with my best friend Toda's family. Summer vacation sketches with a sense of intimacy. The main focus is on talking about the hearts of urban people who are attracted to nature, such as the color of flowers, the beauty of sunlight through the forest, and the fire of the colors. Music borrowed from Western album.

This work was created by wondering if it was possible to make a fisheye image with a 16mm camera, and realizing that it was possible with a wide-angle lens and a wide-angle attachment, I found such a lens combination. Almost 150 degrees of the circumscribed fisheye. Because the fisheye lens replaces the hemisphere of the field of view with a flat surface, the image becomes circular, creating a centre and periphery. Using this as a metaphor for the structure of the world, the film is a statement of the artist's thoughts. The music is borrowed from Mayumi Gorin and T. REX's album. Produced in 1975. The artist was 40 years old. (Suzuki Shiroyasu).

I went out of the room and chose two poets as "objects". One is Harumi Kawaguchi, who worked for a trading company at the time and was a dealer for buying and selling yen and dollars. The other is Toshiharu Kishi, who raises and lives dairy cows deep in the mountains of Yamagata. I sketched their lives and had them read their own poems.

A private portrait of Shirouyasu Suzuki shot by Kazushi Ozawa between 2014 and 2018. In memory of Shirouyasu Suzuki.

In this piece, I described the way of life of the poet Kenji Fukuma and his wife. I read and liked Mr Fukuma's poetry collection, "Country Life," and we began to correspond. Mr. Fukuma has doubts about modern urban life and is searching for a better place to live. I heard that he was interested in tai chi, a traditional Chinese martial art, and had begun to practice it, so I decided to photograph him and his wife as they naturally communicated with each other. Produced in 1991. The artist is 56 years old. (Suzuki Shiroyasu).

White roses and orchids. Each bloomed beautifully like a queen. Its shape speaks of beauty. In other words, the shape of each lower is a word standing for human desire. The work unfolds as the view changes in the garden from summer to winter.

The filmmaker bought some daffodil bulbs and took time-lapse photos of them growing buds and blooming. An ode to their vitality. Humans too extend their lives in ideas. The mysterious 18th century French architect LEQUEUwas obsessed with genitalia and tried to bring that structure into his architecture. Ideas and things.

Each person lives a different life, but the hand seemed to be a metaphor for that person's life. In other words, I thought that the life of the person would be determined by what he had. I pick up a fountain pen and stuff the film by hand. This tells my life. I made such a thought into a work.

Camera turns on, the film runs and the wind occurs. A work that follows the wind, chases the image, and goes far to the image of Africa. A movie that talks about the fact that the wind carries words. The music was borrowed from an African folk music album.

Short 8mm film by Shirouyasu Suzuki.

miniDV diary film by Shirouyasu Suzuki.

Having received a good response to Impressions of the Sunset, he continued to develop his filmmaking expressed from an everyday perspective, and carried his camera everywhere to shoot whatever was around him. Composing the work in four parts, he reflects on his mental states in a narration that resembles audio commentary. As he films the filmmaker loses motivation to film, and realizing that he is deadlocked in his own life decides to quit his job. The act of filming changes both the filmmaker’s understanding and the practical aspects of his life.