TO YUKO
– a non real life love experience
TOYUKO is a love story, mine and Yuko’s. Even though we never met we promised each other eternal love. While planning a trip to Japan I found her on the internet when looking for someone to assist me in my work as a photographer. Crossing cultural borders in a language unfamiliar to both of us I got to know and fall for her. But when finally arriving in Japan, where Yuko lives, I had loved and lost. For some reason I had not heard from her for a long time. I spent my free time wandering around Tokyo with only my camera to keep me company. Yuko was nowhere but in my memory to be found. She will stay there forever.
Three synchronized video recordings of both moving images and stills are projected onto three surrounding walls together with authentic background sounds from Tokyo, immersing the visitor in the city while Järeslätt’s own chaotic impressions wash over the viewer. In parallel with the projections, visitors can listen through headphones to Yuko’s and Christer’s love story in the form of their email correspondence. The private nature of the letters is reinforced by the fact that the artist has chosen to let them loop in external headphones, only those who chose to will hear the words of the true love story. TOYUKO is a photographic portrayal of a love story on the internet, where the lovers never meet; one of our time’s virtual relationships.
