Nerhol
At the recent Daikanyama Photo Fair, I came across a work that made me stop and go “Whoa!”
Not only were the facial features unreadable — on closer look, it wasn’t a single photograph but a layered structure with the surface stratified like geological strata and sliced open at angles across the top.
This is a work by the art unit “Nerhol,” formed by two artists: Yoshihisa Tanaka, who “kneads (neru)” ideas, and Ryuta Iida, who “digs (horu)” them.
An artist unit consisting of two people is unusual, isn’t it? Take a look — this carved, ridged matière is superb! 
Astonishingly, they layer roughly 200 photographs and then carve into them. Amazing!
What’s more, those 200 sheets aren’t identical photographs — they overlay portraits of many different expressions.
I looked through the photobook on hand at the venue, and the same technique had been applied to many models, producing a striking effect.
You can see plenty of their works on their official site, and each can be zoomed in on for a closer look.
The YouTube video below also gives a glimpse of the making process. You can tell it requires enormous patience.
As I was looking at their works, I remembered a piece I once saw at a collector’s exhibition — a work by a French artist who cuts out from magazines.
The approach is completely different, but I felt something similar in the act of carving.
Nerhol — what ideas will they be kneading and carving next? I look forward to it!
Sakanaction
Nerhol was chosen to create the cover artwork for Sakanaction’s new album “834.194,” released on June 26, 2019.
The album title “834.194” is said to represent the distance from their home city of Sapporo to Tokyo.
The album is a two-disc set — disc 1 with the concept of “Tokyo,” disc 2 with “Sapporo.” The album title is drawn directly from that 834.194 km distance between Sapporo and Tokyo.
On both sides of the album packaging are photographs of two sculptural works produced under the same concept: taking the seas of Sapporo and Tokyo as motifs, they express the depth from sea surface to seabed as layers.
It seems to embody the time and achievements Sakanaction accumulated in moving from Sapporo into Tokyo — a very well-fitting collaboration.
An exhibition of these works is also being discussed, so we can look forward to that!
