Tadashi Ono
Two albums of Paris
On the series “Street”
The photographs in black and white of Tadashi Ono are not fit for the grandiloquence, nor for the pathos, nor for the romanticism. They are disposed of all usual clichés relating to the photographs taken in the urban environment. However, behind this apparent austerity (reinforced by the absence of life), there is a gaze particularly attentive to the areas inhabited by the different ethnics, up to the crease of a hybrid architecture. Each image is thus teeming with symbols, signs, inscriptions or slogans, sometimes discreet or extreme, which take us back to the history of the immigrant population in question… an infinitely political history, which, failing to be expressed by votes, are inscribed on the wall or on the boarding. A rarely banal history, which finally concerns everybody. Strict and subtle, the photographs of Ono are not at all an unctuous representation of the reality of Paris. They are not even silent. Constantly, we have to track down the slightest signs in these desert streets, to render them significant, and to recognize that fortunately, the life can always find a place to manifest itself in its diversity.
On the series “Museum”
Through the superposition, the collusion, the assemblage and the photomontage, Tadashi Ono also takes an interest in the Paris monuments, museums in particular, as cultural zones and commercial spaces tending to be mixed up. He shows a misleading perception of artworks through their replicas sold in shops (postcards, miniatures, etc.). The artworks, ridden of their aura, become real merchandise, sacrificed to the god of business affaires and reduced to a simple item for decoration. It seems that the artworks do not need to be justified any more in the eyes of the public susceptible to the pomp of the shops but indifferent to what they see in the museum. In the experimental but determined way, Ono observes this recrudescent order of things, without hierarchical value, and points to the responsibilities of those who are loyal to the most carnivorous liberalism.
Rémy Fenzy, Galerie des Grands Bains Douches de la Plaine, Marseille, France