Osamu Kanemura: Gate Hack Eden

A landscape of towering ruins drawn by the traces of what once was, revealing the essence of what still is, and what always will be. This compilation, Gate Hack Eden, was published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name which took place at Cave-Ayumi Gallery in September of 2024. Beginning as a single body comprised of hundreds of stacked photographs, drawings, and film stills, each book is a single fragment of this greater entity, which has been cut into a thousand uniform pieces, rendering in physical form the practice of photographer Osamu Kanemura. Like an edifice rising out of a newly formed distance, images now severed and removed from original intention run in parallel with Kanemura’s own edifice of thought in describing the mediums used as being formed by an accumulation of traces and fragments, their essence becoming clear once they have become free from the utility of reproducing the subject.

Totaling 1,648 pages, divided into 5 “modules” which stack and interlock forming a structure which can both be itself fragmented or continuous, the hundreds of splintered images interwoven together, their remnants layered in a shifting order, consolidating to form a ruin object with a seemingly infinite number of unique instances, the now cracked surfaces existent but scattered like ghostly rubble over a vast plain.

Each copy has been hand sorted and is original, marked with the unique number relating to the image appearing on its top surface. Each module of 400 pages is bound between two pieces of clear acrylic using a series of alternating plastic rivets. The book incorporates two essays, one written by curator Pauline Vermare, providing a comprehensive introduction to Kanemura’s practice from the beginnings until the present day, and one written by Kanemura himself, making tangible through words the depths of thought behind his work and by extension this book.

Osamu Kanemura
Born in Tokyo in 1964. In 1992, while attending Tokyo College of Photography, he was invited to the Rotterdam Photography Biennale in the Netherlands. In 1996, he was selected by MoMA as one of the “Six Photographers co Watch.” In 1997, he received the Newcomer Award from the Japan Photographic Society and the Newcomer Award at the 13th Higashikawa International Photo Festival. In 2000, he won the 19th Dornon Ken Award, and in 2014, the 39th Ina Nobuo Award. His photobooks include “Spider’s Strategy”, “I can tell” and “Concrete Octopus”. He has also authored “Zenshinkairakusyashinka” and co-authored “Challenging photographic history” together with Takazawa Kenji.

Pages: 1648
Dimensions: 117 × 163 mm
Format: 5 modules, Sleeve
Language: English, Japanese
Year: 2024
Publisher: ori.studio