When You Wake
When You Wake, 2003
Shizuka Yokomizo (b.1966)
Yokomizo sees her work as an expression of the relationship between the self and other. Put more simply, the unbridegable gap between âyouâ and âmeâ.
In contrast to much documentary-style video and photography, her approach causes the viewer to be very aware of their own presence in relation to that of her subject. She also chooses to work with strangers, sensitively exploring the boundaries between private and public realms.
In When You Wake, Yokomizoâs subjects are especially vulnerable, being old people filmed in nursing homes as well as in domestic settings.
The film has many possible interpretations but above all a reflective mood. It suggestâs the isolation of ageing, solitude, separation and ultimately, the closeness of death. By contrast however, in the tea party scene there is a strong sense of community and the warmth of shared experiences and memories.
In the sleeping sequence in which the artistâs own breathing was recorded whilst asleep, she makes a link to us all and the essential fragility of human existence.
Two screen video projection
Purchased through the Contemporary Art Society Special Collection Scheme with Lottery funding from the Arts Council England, 2005
