Takahiko Iimura

Time Tunnel: Takahiko Iimura at Kino Arsenal, 18. April 1973 (2023)

In 1973 the Kino Arsenal – then in its Welserstraße location in Berlin-Schöneberg – showed a programme of videos by the Japanese artist Takahiko Iimura. At the time, it was not yet possible to project the video images on the screen at the Arsenal, so ...

Associations of Silverpencils (2011)

This is a film about a medium approaching extinction, an 8mm documentary film about a vanishing 8mm cinema. Blending two genres, the science film and the personal film, and benefiting from the participation of multiple generations of cineastes, it is a ref ...

Ma: The Stones Haved Moved (2004)

An animation film in which the outline of the image of a stone garden was traced on computer. As the result while the camera-crews moved in film-making, the stone, the drawn line moved in animation. ...

I am (Not) Seen (2003)

This video deals with the perception of seeing including the words as I see you, I am seen, and I am not seen. These words are superimposed over the pictures of a face, eyes, and a face in the frame. The video changes in quite rapid motion framewise with t ...

Sky and Ground (1996)

Sky and ground which was cut off momentarily / A camera wanders seeking its own shadow / The images which explore the limit / of solitude in New York / A mythological verbal space in which / snakes and birds are intermingled / A unique world where these im ...

This Is a Camera Which Shoots This (1995)

"This Is a Camera Which Shoots This" and "As I See You You See Me" are both set up facing two cameras and monitors and the performer walks between them while voicing the sentence of the title. Here the words "This" and "You" have the same form in the nomin ...

As I See You You See Me (1995)

"This Is A Camera Which Shoots This" and "As I See You You See Me" are both set up facing two cameras and monitors and the performer walks between them while voicing the sentence of the title. Here the words "This" and "You" have the same form in the nomin ...

A I U E O NN Six Features (1993)

Experimental film involving letters. ...

Concept tape 3 (Performance) (1991)

A compilation tape of performances including John Cage Performs James Joyce, Arakawa, and Iimura's first AIUEONN and As I See You You See Me shot mostly 1980s. All deals with the relationships of words and performance in image-making. ...

Concept Tapes 1 (1991)

Concept Tapes 2 (1991)

Fluxus Replayed (1991)

The film reproduces the historic performances by some of the iconic artists of Fluxus from the 60s: Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Dick Higgins, George Brecht, Alison Knowles, Ben Patterson, Jackson Mac Low etc. ...

MA: Space/Time in the Garden of Ryoan-ji (1989)

The early sixteenth-century Japanese garden in the Zen temple of Ryoan-ji, in Kyoto, is considered a masterpiece of the karesansui or "dry landscape" style... In this film, the viewer is invited to experience the garden as an embodiment of ma, a Japanese c ...

The Making of MA in Ryoan-ji (1989)

"The Making..." showed not only the process of film-making, but also the creation of "MA" as a work. ...

Scared to Death (1989)

An image synthesized version of Mardi Gras festival in New Orleans, in which many colorized images flow slowly left to right as the parade of the floats goes by in front of the camera with the decorated messages. The title Scared to Death is one of them. T ...

New York Day and Night: A Journey through Light and Darkness (1989)

A journey through light and darkness reflected on the city of New York. ...

Double Portrait (1987)

"Double Portrait" and "I Love You" are a paired piece with Akiko Iimura. Both Iimuras play individually as well as a unit. In "Double Portrait" they are never together, but one by one in three points of view, front, side, and back, assigned to the words "I ...

I Love You (1987)

"Double Portrait" and "I Love You" are a paired piece with Akiko Iimura. Both Iimuras play individually as well as a unit. In "Double Portrait" they are never together, but one by one in three points of view, front, side, and back, assigned to the words "I ...

Air's Rock (1985)

A portmanteau of two films about Uluru (then known as Ayres Rock). "A huge isolated rock in the midst of desert in Australia: Ayers Rock. I produced two films around this rock; however, the method of the filming are different. The first, "Moments At The R ...

John Cage Performs James Joyce (1985)

A voice performance by John Cage who "reads", "vocalizes" and "whispers" in three different manners his artificial language taken from "Finnegens Wake" by James Joyce. Cage freely composed the letters according to a chance operation using the I-Ching. ...

New York Hot Springs (1984)

'New York Hot Springs' (1984) is scenes of steam coming out of many streets of New York, a typical scene in winter, in repeated cycles of short shots. Though the scenes are shot at the same locations, the timings are differed slightly in every cycle. ...

Talking Picture (The Structure of Film Viewing) (1981)

Consisting of four parts: Between the Frames; Seeing Nothing; The Privilege to See; I Am A Viewer / You Are A Viewer. The film demonstrates and discusses the structure of film viewing as an institution: playing/talking myself in the double role of the view ...

I Am A Viewer You Are A Viewer (1981)

In "I Am A Viewer, You Are A Viewer" the performer plays the double role of the performer and the audience simultaneously, talking to his own shadow. At the end, the performer suggests the audience members move into the light to see themselves in shadow. ...

Talking in New York (1981)

A kind of first person cinema where the filmmaker is the cameraman as well as the actor. Acting like a total stranger in the city who does not speak or hear the language, he walks with a camera to such sight-seeing spots as Times Square,and the top of the ...

Visual Logic (and Illogic) (1977)

Demonstrates the visual logic (and illogic) of sign combining with limited movements of camera for panning and zooming. ...

MA (Intervals) (1977)

In the general classification, this was a complete abstract film and a kind of experimental movie as well, only black film, which blocks light, and clear film, which is totally transparent, were used as the basic materials. ...

One Frame Duration (1977)

The films concerns the "duration" (or non-duration) of one frame, as the title indicates, the minimum unit of film in space (dark and light) with sound (or silent) and their various combinations. ...

Camera, Monitor, Frame (1976)

Camera, Monitor, Frame is the first installment of Takahiko Iimura's "Video Semiotics Triptych" (the other two works are Observer/Observed, made in 1975, and Observer/Observed/Observer, made in 1976). The work analyzes the fundamental components of video: ...

24 Frames per Second (1975)

This film, and in particular the function of sound within it will vary freely from moment to moment, viewer to viewer. ...

Observer / Observed (1975)

Cameras observing each other. ...

Plus and Minus (1973)

"Of the new foreign work I saw, (at the Avantgarde Film Festival in London) that of Taka Iimura interested me most – His film + & -, using scratched signs, displayed how perception can be molded by the concept. By postulating negative duration – a leng ...

1 To 60 Seconds (1973)

"In 1 to 60 Seconds Iimura does an extraordinary thing: he abstracts time from any concrete associations, seems to put it on the screen and there you sit looking at (or for) it, experiencing it. The film is all black leader except for the numbers 1 to 60 t ...

Timed 1, 2, 3 (1972)

Visually, each section of the film is composed of 10-second spans of clear and dark leader, arranged in a progressive fashion so that at first there is more and more light and less darkness, then vice versa. ...

Yoko Ono: This Is Not Here (1972)

On John's 31st birthday, Yoko held an art exhibit, "This Is Not Here", at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, N.Y.. The show was taped and aired on U.S. TV on May 11, 1972 as "John and Yoko in Syracuse, New York. ...

Models: B-4: Seeing, Not Seeing (1972)

Short work. ...

Shutter (1971)

'What I am concerned with in this film is not only the flicker effect, but also the coming and going of an eye-like shape on screen which was created by a fade-in-out device while shooting the light/the bulb of the projector. The viewer literally looks int ...

Man and Woman (1971)

MAN AND WOMAN shows full body shots of a naked man and woman shot from above without movement. ...

Time Tunnel (1971)

An attempt at time travel in a very conceptual sense. ...

The Pacific Ocean (1971)

Shot on 8mm on the 12-day boat journey between Yokohama and San Francisco, Iimura's The Pacific Ocean consumes the anticipation and uncertainties of a voyage on waves with an obsessive attention on the ripples. ...

A Chair (1970)

One of Takahiko Iimura's (and modern art's) earliest works in conceptual video, A Chair entirely consists of a steady (and usually ghosted) image of a chair to the accompaniment of the firecracker pops of television static. While formally minimal, A Chair ...

Blinking (1970)

One of the earliest minimalist video with flicker effects was produced in Tokyo in early 1970s. A flickering video with eyes, which super-impose the positive over the negative, open and close rapidly. At the same time the "blind" effects of video fast-forw ...

In The River (1970)

Iimura analyzed some footage he had made in Katmandu of a man taking a bath in a sacred river. A meditational experience is, thus, presented in a film whose minimal action and quiet pace can create meditational possibilities for viewers -Scott MacDonald ( ...

Film Strips I (1970)

When I came to the USA in the mid 1960s, it was the high point of the Hippie movement and the black riots. I lived in the East village in New York, which was a center of the former, and watched TV news of the latter often. These two films, Film Strips I an ...

Film Strips II (1970)

When I came to the USA in the mid 1960s, it was the high point of the Hippie movement and the black riots. I lived in the East village in New York, which was a center of the former, and watched TV news of the latter often. These two films, Film Strips I an ...

Kiri (The Fog) (1970)

"Shot on 8mm on a mountain in Japan, the abrasive winds that drift the fog in Iimura's Kiri are so fierce we almost believe it to have grazed the filmstrip. The scratches, however, emerge as dust particles that submerge in and out of the mist. A comparativ ...

Buddha Again (1970)

Originally filmed in 8mm a little stone-made Buddha in a temple of Katmandu, the film strip in ten seconds was projected as a loop, and then the screen w as refilmed many times in 16mm at different speeds (frames per second). The original 8mm footage has b ...

Face (1969)

The three faces (two women and one tranvestized man) in the series of close up, which are shot separately in their sexual process of the acting and the real, are intercut and edited making into a film. The sound is the voice of continuous laughing of a wom ...

Filmmakers (1969)

Iimura creates a short self-portrait as well as brief portraits of five of his peers: Brakhage, Vanderbeek, Smith, Mekas and Warhol. In each portrait, Iimura attempts to copy the styles and traits of each artist (Vanderbeek's constantly moving camera; Meka ...

Flowers (1969)

While I was staying in New York in the 1960s during the rise of the hippie movement, I filmed performances of body painting by the artist, Kusama Yayoi, together with the performers. As I wasn't satisfied with merely documenting her performance, made super ...

Shelter 9999 (1967)

In the context of the Cold War, use of the word "shelter" was common. However, it surprised Iimura when he started to live in New York in the 1960s. His work Shelter 9999 embodied the idea of a shelter of the future. Iimura captured scratched letters and a ...

Japanese Erotica: Five Films on Love and Sex from the Japanese Underground of the Experimental Cinema (1967)

A program of five films on love and sex from the Japanese underground of the experimental cinema, assembled by avant-garde cineaste Takahiko Iimura, and shown at the American Cinematheque from January 19 to 25, 1967. ...

White Calligraphy (1967)

White Calligraphy is an abstract short made by scratching characters from 'Kojiki', an early Japanese text, into the frames of 16mm black leader. ...

New York Scenes (1967)

'New York Scenes' (1967) is sketches of certain scenes and portraits in New York including, 'Linda with a lens', 'Fire hydrants on Broadway', 'Jack Smith with his 'Flaming Creatures', 'Akiko on the roof', and 'A hippie at the Central Park'. ...

Why Don't You Sneeze (1966)

labeled in the CCJ as "Why Not Sneeze?", this film has been described as blatantly inspired by Marcel Duchamp's ANEMIC CINEMA. ...

Honey Moon (1966)

A touching portrait of his partner Akiko and the days following their wedding, Iimura's conceptual rigour loosens in favour of intimacy in Honey Moon. ...

I Saw the Shadow (1966)

A precedent to Iimura's video work where he becomes his own subject, I Saw the Shadow sees Iimura follow his own shadow in and out of vision as he roams around streets, steps and fields. As the film progresses, it becomes increasingly unclear whether it is ...

Iro (Colors) (1966)

First projected onto Jiro Takamatsu's naked back at the legendary Sogetsu Art Center for the performance Screen Play, Colors is an experiment in concoction. Iimura drops paint into oil and water and melts wax as he films the colors take shape whilst simult ...

Taka and Ako (1966)

Short film featuring Takahiko and Akiko Iimura ...

Rose Color Dance (1965)

A document of Tatsumi Hijikata's Butoh dance with Kazuo Ohno as the guest dancer shot in Hijikata's early period when he was emerging as the originator of Butoh. All of the male dancers are dressed up with evening suits and move gracefully, yet an intruder ...

Inside & Outside (1964)

Short film for the "A Commercial for Myself" programme. ...

My Documentary (1964)

Short film for the "A Commercial for Myself" programme. ...

A Dance Party in the Kingdom of Lilliput (1964)

A super-real comedy with Sho Kazakura. The film is divided in to a number of very short scenes or chapters, each with a title "A,B,C" at random. we see him lame in a crowd, see him running up stairs, see him absolutely naked, watch him urinate, etc. An ant ...

Dead Movie (1964)

Film installation by Japanese experimental filmmaker Takahiko Iimura. ...

The Masseurs (1963)

Anma (The Masseurs) is a representative and historical work by the creator of Butoh dance, Tatsumi Hijikata in his early period in the 1960s. The film is realized not only as a dance document but also as a Cine-Dance, a term made by Iimura, that is meant t ...

Onan (1963)

"ONAN is a work about desire (masturbation) which has no object but itself. The appearance of the large egg objectifies the man's desires. After colliding with the other (a girl), the hero falls down while still holding the egg, thus caricaturing the desir ...

Sakasama (Upside Down) (1963)

Filmed turning the camera upside down, and without looking through the viewfinder, this experimental short features fragmented scenes of people, a girl, an amusement park, the beach, etc. ...

Desade (1963)

From the collector of Marquis de Sade in the early 1960s, still a 'dark age ' of erotic picture, even his novels were forbidden to publish in Tokyo, I burrowed the copies of the engraving taken from the 18th century edition of "The story of Juliette" and o ...

6x6 (Oukan Densentsu) (1962)

A boy and a girl in a small room, having a fight, making love and suddenly . . . a black humor on a young couple.—Takahiko Iimura, Paper Film: Love and Flowers, 1970. ...

Love (1962)

"10 minutes of the act of creation itself run through close up and magnifying lenses. " -T.I. ...

Junk (1962)

"It's a mixture of [dead] animals, pieces of [broken] furniture, industrial waste, kids playing. I didn't have in mind any of the kind of historical perspective, nor was I trying to make an ecological statement. I was showing the new landscape of our civil ...

On Eye Rape (1962)

"The original film was rescued from a Tokyo trash bin. It is an American sexual education film in which plant and animal sex are explained. I, together with an artist friend, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, punched big holes in almost all of the frames. It was a prot ...

Dada 62 (1962)

Yomiuri Independent was an annual show between 1949-1963 that exhibited all art that was submitted. Artists in the early 60s began to take advantage of the challenge by provoking the organisers with their submissions that cast a question on the framework o ...

Film Workshop In SANGENJAYA - Summer (2012)

8mm short by Kenji Onishi and Tohru Mabuchi. ...

Associations of Silverpencils (2011)

This is a film about a medium approaching extinction, an 8mm documentary film about a vanishing 8mm cinema. Blending two genres, the science film and the personal film, and benefiting from the participation of multiple generations of cineastes, it is a ref ...

Un Ange Passe (2002)

Experimental short by Keiji Aiuchi. ...

Birth of a Nation (1997)

Jonas Mekas assembles 160 portraits, appearances, and fleeting sketches of underground and independent filmmakers captured between 1955 and 1996. Fast-paced and archival in spirit, the film celebrates the avant-garde as its own "nation of cinema," a vital ...

A I U E O NN Six Features (1993)

Experimental film involving letters. ...

Home Movies 1971-81 (1985)

Home movies shot on Super 8mm by W+B Hein over 10 years. ...

Four Shadows (1978)

Four four-minute image sections and four four-minute sound sections are linked in all combinations of the sound sections with each of the image sections. This established affinities between each of the image sections to the others, and the sound sections t ...

Filmmakers (1969)

Iimura creates a short self-portrait as well as brief portraits of five of his peers: Brakhage, Vanderbeek, Smith, Mekas and Warhol. In each portrait, Iimura attempts to copy the styles and traits of each artist (Vanderbeek's constantly moving camera; Meka ...