In June, Guardian Garden will host “Kiku wo Erabu,” a solo exhibition of works by Nakayamashimai, winner of the Grand Prize in the 1st “1_WALL” Photography Competition held in 2009. “1_WALL” is a series of open competitions, held separately in the photography and graphics categories, launched in 2009 to supersede the earlier “Hitotsubo” competitions. A pamphlet prepared by Nakayamashimai in tandem with this event will be available for purchase in the gallery.

Nakayamashimai chooses family members, people she meets at her part-time jobs, and interactions she has with particular objects, and records them in photographs, video films and live performances. Her Grand Prize-winning work was “Fossils,” her very first photographic effort in earnest. She created dioramas on the body of her grandfather in hospital, employing straight expression to give tangible forms to his fading memories. Without any difficult concepts or sophisticated techniques, she was driven solely by pure curiosity toward everyday life.

Chrysanthemum Projections

For this exhibition, Nakayamashimai will be showing new photographic works born from days spent in self-reexamination. This spring, she set out in search of a new encounter and headed to Okinoerabu, a small island in the Amami archipelago known for its production of chrysanthemums. But instead of the beautiful fields of flowers she had imagined, what greeted her were pitiable but stalwart chrysanthemums steeped in chemical fertilizers, blooming amidst wire supports. She spent her days living at a farm and helping to harvest its chrysanthemums. Before long, her unsettled feelings evolved to a sense of seeing herself reflected in the chrysanthemums before her. Visitors will surely enjoy viewing Nakayamashimai’s photos, as well as her films, and coming to know her delicate inner change in perspective.