I met artist and photographer Anaïs López when I was touring the galleries on the Antwerp Art Weekend, which ran from May 29 to the 1st of June. She exhibited her work at Ibasho Gallery, a multimedia project under the title ‘the Turtle and the Monk’. It follows a true fairy tale of her search for the golden turtle Kami. The turtle got this name as it seen as the goddess of the Kamo river. It is actually a (three) layered story, we read on the handout on her work which the artist gave us when we entered the gallery. The story about the search for Kami is about mourning, the human urge to control nature and the magic of imagination.
Anaïs López made a trip to Japan in October 2016. In a short film the artist made about the trip, she tells us “I wanted to go away, somewhere far, and unfamiliar.” She had reasons for it: she had lost her sister recently and was herself in the sixth month of her pregnancy. Anaïs Lopez went to the land of the rising sun in search of solace and reflection. Walking in Kyoto along the river Kamogawa, a golden turtle with a stick in its mouth draws her attention. She takes a photo, but the sound of the shutter makes the turtle flee under a rock.
Back in the Netherlands, she cannot put the golden turtle out of her head. She gave him the name Kami, which is Japanese for god. So a years-long quest begins. Anaïs López travels several times back to Japan, and meets special people there, each showing her a different path. The tale of the chance encounter turns into a layered story about grief, control, nature, greed and finally being able to let go.
She uses photography, film and special printing techniques to let the visitors make a unique visual journey. On the photos here you see some of her work. She uses also special printing techniques like gyotaku and photopolymer etching. Gyotaku stems from gyo “fish” + taku , “stone impression” meaning fish print(ing).
This is the traditional Japanese method of printing fish, a practice which dates back to the mid-1800s. Photopolymer on the other hand is light activated resin, which changes its properties when exposed to light. With her photographic images and also the special prints she takes the visitors on a intriguing visual journey, telling a poetic story.
Upon our visit to her exhibition at the Ibasho gallery, we had the opportunity to have the following interview with her:
Hans Knol ten Bensel: You are addressing different themes in your exhibition: Insects, nature in itself… How did you develop yourself in photography, what do you want to express…
Anaïs López : Oh, that is quite a complete question! I am indeed a photographer, but now I am a storyteller, and I create modern fairy tales about important facts and developments in today’s world, showing them in a different light.
Hans Knol ten Bensel: Conservation of nature, our environment, what role do the insects play in this story?
Anaïs López: In this story? It is in fact a much larger, wider story, it is about the search for a golden turtle, but it is also about the fight for control, greed, life and death, and the magic of imagination.
The insects I depict here in my photos is rather that when you truly look at the world, true magic unfolds, and this is also found in the animal world and nature. I want that people who see my images, will start to look again (differently) at the world around them. This I hope at least.
Hans Knol ten Bensel: I am always impressed how animals look at humans, and love their company, long to be with them or at least want to have a significant presence for humans, relate to them.
Anaïs López: I see many human aspects in animals…
Hans Knol ten Bensel: They have also a memory, fears, panic, social instincts, aggression, sexual drives…as humans have. And this is the parallel you want to draw.
Anaïs López: Indeed, but as I said, it is a much larger story. What I want to achieve is that people will start to look at the world differently. If you look at nature more closely and intensely, you will want to preserve, care for it and respect it more.
Hans Knol ten Bensel: I see blue colors in your work…
Anaïs Lopez: I use actually three colors, blue, red and gold. Red stands for death, gold for life and blue for the sheer magic of the imagination.
Hans Knol ten Bensel: some photos are also in black and white…
Anaïs Lopez: Indeed, these stem from the period when I mourned the death of my sister while I was six months pregnant. Then came the blue, magic world which deployed itself to me, then when the time of mourning was over and I wanted to see the world again, came the color photography.
Anaïs Lopez: And then I have works which are blue and red, and when you put on the red glasses, you see the world with life and death together and indeed the colors appear together. (Compare with the same photo in red and blue earlier, seen with the naked eye.)
Hans Knol ten Bensel: I thank you for this interview.
Anaïs Lopez: My pleasure.
The exhibition “The turtle and the monk” will run at Ibasho Gallery (see https://ibashogallery.com/) at Tolstraat 67, 2000 Antwerp until 3 August 2025. A special edition book will also be available, including gyutaku and photopolymer etchings alongside her photographic work. It contains also several drawings by Japanese artist Niwa Yuta.
Hans Knol ten Bensel
