The humanness of our lonely selves

Abstract

Critically acclaimed for her psychological landscape images, Awoiska van der Molen presents a new body of work with understated black-and-white photos of built-up environments that reveal traces of human presence: she zooms in on illuminated windows in the darkness of the evening in Japan. Van der Molen encounters these windows while exploring the southern islands of Japan, where houses are constructed using traditional methods and materials. The walls are thin due to the mild climate. She is struck by the fact that apart from the din of a television, the soft shuffle of socks on echoing floors, or the clatter from a kitchen, she only hears the monotonous hum of air con. No heated discussions, no loud laughter, no sensual sighs. This is the first of her many travels through Japan to discover why she is so intrigued by these windows.