Risa Hatayama — Seeing Life Through the Eyes Of The Elderly
Risa Hatayama — Seeing Life Through the Eyes Of The Elderly
This digital publication completes the project Seeing Life Through The Eyes Of The Elderly, by Risa Hatayama. It contains visual documentation of each of the project’s many stages, testifying to the care Hatamaya has taken at each step; a selection of images and texts produced by the participants; photographs taken by Hatayama inspired solely by the elders’ descriptions – therefore, not having seen the images yet – of their favourite moment; and images from the photo album produced by Hatayama for each participant (these sixteen books are available in digital format on our website). Added to this wealth of material are audio excerpts of conversations between Hatayama and some of the participants. And to close, an essay by Eugénia Reznik that offers a personal vision of the project, casting a sensitive regard both on Hatayama’s approach and on the participants’ contributions.
Born in Japan, Hatayama comes from a culture that honours its elders and grants them a special place in society. In addition to the project’s artistic merit, founded on Hatayama’s relationship to the participants, it was the idea of putting such values into practice that motivated Dazibao’s involvement. Although it was initially derailed by the worsening pandemic situation, Hatayama was able to find elegant alternatives to make the project possible. The new approach not only nurtured close connections between generations as intended, but also helped to break the isolation from which the elderly participants were suffering at a crucial time. Encouraging them to become involved in an exchange that would be spread out over time, and helping to set anchor points in a period of such uncertainty, Seeing Life Through The Eyes Of The Elderly invited many of the participants to plan for better days and see a glimmer of hope.
In general, Hatamaya’s projects are relational and explore the themes of love, time, and memory. Human beings are central to her practice.
For Seeing Life Through The Eyes Of The Elderly, Hatayama sent disposable cameras to sixteen elderly people who had agreed to participate in the project. By asking them simply to capture meaningful moments in their daily life and to comment on them in a notebook, Hatayama invited them to share their point of view of the world. Their stories, memories, and daily life were brought to the surface. The silence surrounding old age, inherent to Western societies, was broken. Here, old age is shown in a new light, rich with knowledge, experiences, and emotions, as well as discoveries, hope, and life.
Seeing Life Through The Eyes Of The Elderlyis an invitation to reconsider the course of time and the way in which we conceive of old age – the present for some and the future for others.
Artist: Risa Hatayama
Text by: Eugénia Reznik
Design: Studio TagTeam and Tatiana Matsoulevitch
Edited by: France Choinière
2022
ISBN: 9782922135572 (EPUB)
