Akiko Utsumi works in video, photography and installation. She uses these media to represent the past, future, and present in the continuity of time, highlighting its interrelational aspect.
Her piece Cryptophasia is based on a photo album that she found in a flea-market in Berlin. It contains images that show different stages in the life of German twin sisters. The title Cryptophasia means the secret (crypto) language (phasia) between very young twins. This unique language, however, dwindles more and more as time passes and is replaced by the customary form of communication. Since the images of the individual sisters throughout their life are positioned on opposite pages, Utsumi focuses on the idea of representing the possibility of two dimensions existing at the same time, mirroring the experience of a potential identical individual. The suggested unity of the twins enables two individual perspectives on the same moment in time.
Akiko Utsumi is a grantee of Pola Art Foundation in the context of our International Studio Programme.