Rowing in a Tetrapod
2017
Rowing in a Tetrapod by Fumi Ishino. First edition (2017). First impression. Large format paperback in new condition. Flat signed by author to front end paper. No markings, this is a brand new book. Please see pictures. PayPal accepted, any questions get in touch.
About Rowing in a Tetrapod
So, Ishino's book brings together a fluctuating array of black and white photographs made in multiple locations in the United States and Japan. Between these countries emerging artist Fumi Ishino has resided. The work channels his nomadic experience of moving back and forth between two distinct cultures. Both with divergent social norms and values. Following an aleatoric structure, the book presents images as diverse as Japanese school children, American astronauts, vernacular architecture, laboratory scenes, local cuisines, animals and studio still-lifes. In conclusion, Blurring distinctions between the local and the foreign, the domestic and the cosmic, Rowing a Tetrapod delights in confusing cultural conceptions, fabricating an imaginary space that is bent towards misinterpretation.
In English, a tetrapod is a four-limbed vertebrate that typically refers to amphibians and reptiles but also includes mammals and primates. Yet in Japanese, a tetrapod refers to a coastal engineering structure used to prevent erosion and coastal drift. Water unites both meanings, yet neither the animal nor the concrete can be moved through a rowing gesture.