The synthesis of Kensuke Koike’s art is the manipulation and transformation of photographic prints to create conceptual puzzles that look like projections of the unconscious.
The Japanese artist, born in Nagaya in 1980, went to Venice in 1999 to study art history, and stayed there to live. At the beginning of his experiments with photography, collage and sculpture, he used shots made by himself, but soon realized that always having negatives available had become a kind of trap. If the result was not satisfactory, in fact, you can throw all the work and start over with another print.
Koike then decided to replace the base material with old photos and vintage postcards he found in flea markets and thrift shops. Cropping and decomposing a non-reproducible image thus became a challenge that prompted him to be more precise and thoughtful in the creative process.
This is also why Koike defines himself as an alchemist: forgotten and authorless photographs are his metals, to which he gives a new life and unexpected meanings. His works can be seen until October 30 at the Man museum in Nuoro in the exhibition Sensoramaa collective of artists who from the invention of cinema and photography to the present day have explored the deceptive relationship between vision and perception of reality, such as George Méliès, Man Ray, Giorgio De Chirico, René Magritte, Florence Henri and Liu Bolin.