This publication brings together works from Yusaku Aoki’s 2022 exhibition at The Side, Kyoto.

Developed from an ongoing experiment begun in 2019, Aoki melts photographic images to explore photography’s ability to hold what has disappeared. The flowing ink evokes the Sanzu River, the boundary between life and death in Japanese folklore, while revealing dreamlike landscapes suspended between memory and place.

The project was revisited during lockdown in London and later accompanied by a 36-minute composition by Maiko Okimoto, created from field recordings gathered over the course of a year. Together, image and sound form a meditation on time, nature and the space between life and death.