Lot 61: KITANO KEN (b.1968)

KITANO KEN (b.1968)
Piling Portraits of 35 Esoteric Buddhist Monks of the Shingon Sect Studying at Kohya Mountain Speciality School, Wakayama from Portrait of Our Face, 2003
oversized chromogenic print
signed in Japanese in ink on printed label with credit, title and edition 'AP 1/2' on backing board
60¼ x 49¼in. (153 x 125cm.) overall

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium
For this series, Kitano travelled throughout Japan and photographed people belonging to particular groups. To create this 'piling portrait', he took individual portraits of the 35 monks then meticulously printed each negative, layering one on top of the other. The resulting composite portrait -- Portrait of Our Face -- has an otherworldly quality. Kitano explains: 'The more faces are printed, the more contours of an individual become blurred and the expression and age more ambiguous.' (Artist statement, 2008) Travelling beyond Japan, he continues to question the notion of globalisation through this ongoing series.

AP1 aside from the sold-out edition of 5.