From the Japanese Mythology series © Seishiro Jay Tomioka

Images from Japanese Mythology
photographs by Seishiro Jay Tomioka

November 16 through December 31, 2012

A reception for the artist will be held Friday evening, November 16 from 6-9 PM.

Our final show for 2012, Through This Lens is very pleased to present the work of artist Seishiro Jay Tomioka. There will be several large prints on display along with a dozen smaller images. Mr. Tomioka, currently residing in Florida, will attend the Friday evening event and talk about his work. Please join us!

Artist's Statement:

“ All myths are public dreams, all dreams are private myths.”
- Joseph Campbell

“A myth is something that never was but is always happening.”
- Jean Houston

I use photography, digital design and printmaking to explore and envision  
stories of myth. In my artwork I seek to illustrate, interpret and re- contextualize mythology in a way that is both accurate and meaningful for people today. I believe that in order to understand who we are now, we must understand who we were in the past. By taking a fresh look at how we viewed ourselves at the dawn of culture we can recognize previously unnoticed aspects of contemporary life. In the beginning,  mankind’s struggles were essentially the same:  surviving and making sense of a harsh and unpredictable world. Naturally, each culture expressed their experience in narratives that are unique to their particular perspective and universal when seen in a broad context. Thus myths represent the intersections of nature, society, ritual and the spirit. 

When speaking of Greek myths; the author Robert Graves (I, Claudius) said  “True myth may be defined as the reduction to narrative shorthand of the ritual mime performed on public festivals, and in many cases recorded pictorially.”  The same can be said of Japanese myths and Shinto rituals. When speaking with renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers recounted a conversation he had with a Shinto priest: “ What are the theologies and doctrines of Shinto?”  He asked. After some thought the Shinto priest replied: “I do not believe we have any theology or doctrine. We just dance.” 

  Whether we look at Ancient Greek festival mime, Shinto rites, 
Native American rituals, West African Voodoo trances or Catholic Mardi Gras celebrations; the performance of specific dances are  rooted in myth and are an integral part of the universal festival experience.  Human beings celebrate these festivals because they resonate deeply within us; even if their original meaning is not always understood today. The Greek word mythos originally meant speech or discourse.  These stories from the past; embedded in ritual and recorded in pictorially contain the wisdom of our earliest ancestors passed down to us from a time before writing. I see them as fossils of thought. 

Across disparate cultures, languages, oceans and continents, the essence of these stories remains surprisingly constant: how to live a meaningful life.  Incredibly many people today neither know, understand nor care about these narratives. Today the word myth has become synonymous with that which is untrue or false.  Why is this so?  How has something that originally was designed to preserve cultural truth become inverted to become its opposite?

The hallmark of contemporary society (post-modernity), claims French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard is a widespread skepticism toward (metanarratives) the established belief systems of modern history and culture. This trend, says Lyotard, began with Modernism’s promotion of progress; which invalidated the established belief systems of the preceding pre-modern and ancient eras. So in this vacuum of universal skepticism we are left to either believe in nothing, everything or create something new.

  Our mind is a tool forged and tempered by contemporary experience (post-modernity). Thus understanding the ancient past is a difficult and foreign journey for most of us. I use contemporary digital tools to bring mythology closer to our own experience as contemporary people. My art is an amalgam of layers. Layers of photographic elements, appropriated material (often from 16th c. - 19th c. Japanese prints) and specific  mythical narratives are merged together to form  single and sequential free flowing visual poems.

In some ways I look at my artwork as analogous to the temper mark (hamon) seen in Japanese swords.  This mark is a beautiful flowing line caused by the intermingling of different grades of hard steel and flexible iron merging into one superbly crafted piece of metal.  The process involves the repeated folding and re-folding of multiple layers of steel and iron to give the blade the beneficial properties of both.  Through juxtaposition and layering of different photographic, hand drawn and appropriated elements I forge a narrative image that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Artist Biography:
Seishiro Jay Tomioka

I was born in 1974, in West Palm Beach, Florida (USA) to a Japanese father and an American mother who were both world traveling peace activists during the 1960's. Growing and also as an adult, I have always been moving from place to place and consider myself to be a citizen of the World.  
Culturally I have one foot in the US and one in Japan, one hand on my passport and the other pointing to the horizon.  I do not believe in borders, boundaries, nationalism or religious strictures. 
I believe in people, diversity, points of view, educational and traditional lineage's of thought, unique regional perceptions, cultural dialogue, philosophy and mythologies.  I believe that each person and each culture contains the duality of both uniqueness and universality.  In 2005 I received a Master of Fine Art in the areas of Digital Printmaking and Photography from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Fortunately, I have been given the opportunity to continue my art practices with numerous worldwide solo and group exhibitions. I have been teaching photography workshops since 2008 and taught English to students in Japan from 2009-2011.  In January of 2012 I was invited to teach Photography for two quarters at the Art Institute of San Antonio.