Hardcover with dust jacket
ISBN:
9784902943009
Rinko Kawauchi’s The Eyes, the Ears (published by Aperture in 2005) originated as a conceptual continuation of her breakthrough trilogy Utatane, Hanabi, and Aila. Where those earlier books explored the grand cyclical arc of life, sleep, and birth through disparate observations, The Eyes, the Ears narrows its optical lens specifically to the mechanics of sensory perception, how our bodies physically register, filter, and archive the ephemeral data of the world around us.
The publication holds a critical structural turning point in Kawauchi’s oeuvre because it was one of her first deliberate experiments with paired image sequencing. Rather than relying on standalone lyrical vignettes, she structured the book entirely around deliberate diptychs and sequential spreads. By placing disparate subjects, such as the fragile flutter of a moth next to the glowing neon pulse of a city sign, or a drop of condensation on skin beside a microscopic insect, she forces a physical rhythm that mimics how human attention flits between distant memories and immediate sensory stimuli.
Rinko Kawauchi’s The Eyes, the Ears (published by Aperture in 2005) originated as a conceptual continuation of her breakthrough trilogy Utatane, Hanabi, and Aila. Where those earlier books explored the grand cyclical arc of life, sleep, and birth through disparate observations, The Eyes, the Ears narrows its optical lens specifically to the mechanics of sensory perception, how our bodies physically register, filter, and archive the ephemeral data of the world around us.
The publication holds a critical structural turning point in Kawauchi’s oeuvre because it was one of her first deliberate experiments with paired image sequencing. Rather than relying on standalone lyrical vignettes, she structured the book entirely around deliberate diptychs and sequential spreads. By placing disparate subjects, such as the fragile flutter of a moth next to the glowing neon pulse of a city sign, or a drop of condensation on skin beside a microscopic insect, she forces a physical rhythm that mimics how human attention flits between distant memories and immediate sensory stimuli.
Rinko Kawauchi’s The Eyes, the Ears (published by Aperture in 2005) originated as a conceptual continuation of her breakthrough trilogy Utatane, Hanabi, and Aila. Where those earlier books explored the grand cyclical arc of life, sleep, and birth through disparate observations, The Eyes, the Ears narrows its optical lens specifically to the mechanics of sensory perception, how our bodies physically register, filter, and archive the ephemeral data of the world around us.
The publication holds a critical structural turning point in Kawauchi’s oeuvre because it was one of her first deliberate experiments with paired image sequencing. Rather than relying on standalone lyrical vignettes, she structured the book entirely around deliberate diptychs and sequential spreads. By placing disparate subjects, such as the fragile flutter of a moth next to the glowing neon pulse of a city sign, or a drop of condensation on skin beside a microscopic insect, she forces a physical rhythm that mimics how human attention flits between distant memories and immediate sensory stimuli.