The theme of this series is tableaux from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
I took them under natural light, that is, the light which exists there perpetually.

In this period, we did not have electric light yet.
Thus, painters tried to realise their works under the sun light or with a candle light.
The concept of the series, Tableaux, is the return to the same condition under which the works were realised.

Thus, this series aims to show you the exact images you seize when standing in front of the paintings.
You might have already seen this image before.
Yet a memory -or a record- always remains obscure.
What if the image you have been seeing doesn’t appear as you had imagined?
You might try to forget this moment as if it did not exist.
These pictures make you confused, because an indescribable element always exists there, which is not the image you have known.
And you will see how unclear our own memory is.

You will recognize there is an image which is far from the original painting.
You might find something which you have never seen in catalogues or on the internet.
Recreated by light, the images of these photographed paintings are reborn as a new work of Art.
Because the original image does not exist, which is a main subject of the paintings, the frame stands at a centre of the works in turn.

The marvellous paintings, sculptures, photographs…
Everything appears thanks to light.
Nothing exists without light.
Light shows everything which already exists, so we should not forget.

Yuji ONO

Photos gelatin silver print

size
112.5cm×89.5cm （Edition 1/12）
80cm×60cm　（Edition 1/12）