Mayumi Nakazaki

Review from Forum Film Dokumenter

2010HD single screening, original duration 06:27min.
The word game; ` Fortunately, Unfortunately` is used as the main narration of this work. It tells a story of a man who lives with a pet bird in his studio apartment. From the bird`s point of view, the voice over describes the details of the man`s routine in his life. Along with the mechanical narration, we see the picture cards of everyday objects one after another. They are all embossed, manipulated in scale and have the disposable look. Each object, though seemingly mundane, begins to take on a more sinister and darker meaning as the man’s daily routine slips into a slothful existence brought on by his own uncontrollable excesses. This piece expresses the fears that through our own consumption our objects eventually own us, as they become stopgaps for what is lacking in our lives.

https://vimeo.com/114136408

2009HDsingle screening original duration 11min.

It consists of a video footage of a socializing event for people and their dogs in the central park in New York City. The event for the people and their dogs include activities such as the Best in Park dog show, games, contests, and agility tests, etc. The voice over is not directly related to the event itself, but written based on a conversation between two artists dealing with photography. The artists have photographed hunting scene, and they are looking at their pictures of dead animals. The work deals with issues such as the relationship between man and animal, our industrialized world surrounded by animal imagery and urban domestication of our pets.

Supported by Bunkacho Japanese overseas research study program for artists

https://vimeo.com/139683062

This work consists of a video projection, a loop in monitor and drawings/collage. It's an experiment on viewer perception of different given visual scenes within the cinematic context. Dealing with memory and information, the work questions the nature of storytelling that changes interpretations with passage of time. Using documentary structure, the projected narration (total duration 17min.) shifts from personal storytelling, discussion on speculating our future and act of memorizing. Here in the video extract, you see a young student trying to recite what he has memorized in front of the camera. Distracted by the background music playing on the radio, he is uneasy and the scene becomes other than what was expected.

Supported by Mondriaan Foundation
https://vimeo.com/14447934

2005DV single channeltotal duration 9:00 min.

It is a conversation-piece as in a family portrait in video. Participants are linked by an activity, in this case having a sukiyaki party. The camera is focused on their hand movements while we hear their intimate conversations. They gossip about those characters who appear on the television screen. This work is about “otherness” in relation to the question of one’s identity. My intention was to play with the verbal and visual codes we use in our understanding and eventually to deconstruct an image of “other people”.

https://vimeo.com/139682572

2004 Installation woodwork with hand made paper 150cm x 200cm/ video/ drawings

The theme of this work is ‘identity of the traveler’. I see the traveler as an unsettling and inversive existence, where the process of “I become another” is the constant experience. I have realized that traveling is more of an act of experience rather than understanding. It is an experience which not only stimulates the external self but to a large extent the inner self as well, as it eventually leads to questioning of one’s identity and the reason for its nomadic nature. Travelling through India by trains and state buses, there were many occasions that I found myself acting strange, incomprehensive and even absurd, which I believe was experiential in its own right. I suppose the works I present here reflect my thoughts and ideas during the course of my stay in India.

A paravan (screen) has different functions such as divider, decoration, or to create an extra space. I like to connect the idea of flexibility and mobility with the symbolic value of journey. One side of the screen includes 9 Indian languages stating “Repeat after me”. They are hand written on the patches of different papers such as banana leaf, rose flower, currency, stone wash and silk. On the other side has the same sentence in English printed out from the computer. The whole structure is foldable into a compact square size of 50cm x 50cm.

Supported by Mondiraan Foundation and Japan Foundation

This video loop is about my interpretation of time and timelessness through traveling. I have visited several different places of worship where people put their time and effort to create something everlasting. The speed of the images in the video is modified in which I intend to emphasize the notion of moving and standstills.

DV single channel total duration 20 min.

Under the guidance of artist Joroslaw Kozlowski, 16 artists from Rijksakademie ( 11 different nationalities) stayed for 10 days in the village SKOKI, in Poland. Supposedly making art, we discuss our works, the art world and share everyday life. Far away from the art scene, we openly talk about the art world that we are all connected to. This documentation is not meant to be objective, it is edited from the perspective of the maker. “We are talking about position in art, attitude in art. When we discuss your work in your studios, we talk about specific things. Trying to talk about structure of the work, significance, importance and meanings of the work. And very little, we are touching the notion of attitude. The attitude which is always behind the work, which is very much hidden and not discussed.” -J. Kozlowski

Supported by Foundation Rijksakademie Amsterdam

https://vimeo.com/139694713

Installationprojection on loop

A soldier is told to do a simple exercise, while his own multiple images appear in the form of the projection. He is alone in the studio in the dark. He gradually becomes confused and paranoid.

https://vimeo.com/139700081

1999 16mm film total duration 13min. family drama/comedy

Netherlands Media Art Institute archive