Ongoing Project 2022-
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 brought about a great deal of change in our lives. Many people living here in New York City left the place where they had lived for many years. One of my acquaintances, an artist, and his wife decided to leave the United States, where they had lived for twenty-five years, since they were high school students, and return to Japan. Just before they left New York, they held a small farewell party. I met Yuji Agematsu at a small gathering held in a park at night during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He and his partner, who is also a photographer, wandered into the gathering, but both his appearance and the presence he projected were quite different from those of the young artists gathered there. I had heard from the artist and his wife that Yuji had a close connection with Nam June Paik, so I immediately spoke to him. Nam June Paik was one of the idols I had worshipped in high school.
That is how my relationship with Yuji began. We met several times, though not often, through his partner, and talked about many things. Unlike my conversations with young artists, who tend to dream, my conversations with him were filled with the wisdom and common sense of everyday life. Because I had grown fed up with the arrogant egos and lack of logical thinking of these so-called artists whenever I met them, I found my conversations with Yuji somewhat comforting.
One day, when I showed him some of the photographs I had taken in the past, he proposed that I photograph his studio in Dumbo, which he had used for more than thirty years. Land prices in New York had risen dramatically over the decades, and there was a strong possibility that he would soon have to vacate the studio. He wanted me to document the state of the studio before that day came. I immediately agreed to do it.
This project documents the accumulation of time and change over the past thirty years in Yuji Agematsu’s studio. Yuji is now beginning to organize and move his work, and his studio will continue to change as he does so. This project is a record of that movement and change, and it will end when everything has been removed from the studio.
