Dogra Magra

The name of this project is borrowed from the Japanese photographer Kou Inouse, which he in turn borrowed from a Japanese avant-garde gothic novel of the same name. It captures, for me, the uncanny encounters between cultures, memory and forgetting, the interpenetration of dream and reality. Some of the subjects of Kou Inouse's work feature here, but in the context of extended time spent in China, my research interests in the history of East-West exchange and particularly the way Eastern aesthetics have influenced Western art, design and architecture. These images also reflect my love of Japanese papers: the images here are printed on various Japanese kozo (mulberry), bamboo, German 'rice' paper and sumi-e paper (Hähnemuhle), amongst others.