青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

Plastic containers from the world over figure in this latest series by still life photographer Shinichi Kaneko. The containers come from twenty cities, the great majority of which Kaneko visited himself, making the rounds of DIY stores, mid-sized supermarkets, suburban big-box stores, and more in search of bottles of intriguing shape. He shot the objects under strong lighting while also using filters to minimize surface halation and render a matte finish, all in an effort to reveal aspects and guises that ordinarily remain hidden from view.

The concept of readymades as originally espoused by Marcel Duchamp denoted artworks created using industrial objects he chose based on “a reaction of visual indifference” and “the total absence of good or bad taste.” Kaneko, by contrast, sees his own project as being one of discovering new narratives within readymade products.

Work on the series involved going through the steps of setting the lighting, turning the container slowly around, adjusting the height of the camera, and contemplating the resulting light and shadows—a process that, Kaneko says, was akin to puzzling out a chess problem. By thus drawing out the individuality of each object to the fullest, Kaneko presents it to the viewer in a new light as something transcending its designated purpose.

Shinichi Kaneko, born in 1961 in Tokyo, graduated from Pasadena City College in the United States in 1983 and began working as a freelance photographer in 1986. He started his own company, Quinientos, in 2000. Previous collections include Unbalance (Soshiete, 2000), Torso (Ainoa, 2008), and Nudist (Quinientos/True Ring, 2016).