Ctrl Shift + J

First edition of Ctrl Shift + J by Sayuri Ichida. First impression. Medium format softback, leporello style, numbered 447/500.

About

Sayuri Ichida’s series Ctrl Shift + J delves into the psychological impact of relocation and emigration which the artist has experienced throughout her life, questioning where she truly belongs. The title refers to the shortcut she frequently uses when typing in Japanese. Moving during her childhood has had a great impact on Ichida’s life, making her often feel like an outsider. As she entered elementary school, her father was transferred to Niigata prefecture and the family relocated from a big city to a new home in a rural town, over 1,000 km away. There, the use of a different dialect only reinforced her sense of being an outsider.

Today, Ichida lives and works in the UK, the country where her great-great-grandfather was born. Through this serendipitous connection, she can’t help but draw parallels between his experience as a resident in a foreign land and her own journey as an immigrant in the UK. The series comprises of a multitude of images and family photographs, with seemingly out-of-place geometric forms employed to reinforce the sensation of not fitting in. Ichida strives to evoke a profound sense of introspection in the viewers, inviting them to reflect on their own experiences of displacement and the search for belonging.