Artworks

May 35 (2019) and HK Uprising (2021) - Drawing on found footage from historic and contemporary protests, Takemoto explores the gaps and fissures of memory through a range of experimental cinema techniques.

Takemoto writes that “‘May 35’ is a phrase used by activists to evade censorship pertaining to the violence that took place in Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989. This cameraless film was made from a single image showing peaceful protesters days before the violence ensued. I spent several days scraping and burning the surface of photographic prints and attaching fragments onto clear 16mm film leader with paint, ink, glue, and tape. I wanted to spend time looking at the faces of the thousands of people whose lives were irrevocably transformed by this upheaval. I was also struck by how difficult it is to look at these iconic Tiananmen Square photographs today without the knowledge of the violence that was to come.

HK Uprising, by comparison, is a tribute to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong that are taking place three decades after the Tiananmen Square uprising. It was made from several protest photographs from 2014 – 2019. Both films speak to the difficulty of remembering in the absence of memory, especially when so many traces of protest have been overlooked, censored, or obscured.”