ROWING A TETRAPOD by Fumi Ishino, Mack

Mack, 2017
9 × 11.2 in
176 pages
Tritone printing
Hardcover
Linen wrap
First edition

“I am interested in images that look familiar and recognizable, but actually contain opposing content. I enjoy mixing conflicting elements that cannot be easily identified in order to seek diverse interpretations.”

“I believe that some questions can stay as they are. It is too complex for me to have one answer. I am not interested in categorizing things as good or bad, black or white, and yes or no. I hope that my investigation of identity allows me to focus on the process of questioning, not answering.”

—Fumi Ishino

Rowing a Tetrapod brings together a fluctuating array of black and white photographs made in multiple locations in the United States and Japan, between which countries emerging artist Fumi Ishino has resided. The work channels his nomadic experience of moving back and forth between two distinct cultures, 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. 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.