T o g a s h i C o l l a b o r a t i v e


T o g a s h i
C o l l a b o r a t i v e

These collaborative works grew out of a combination of the extreme grief and the compulsion to create Källén experienced as a mother following Julian’s death. Prior to this time, Källén’s artistic endeavors had focused on music performance, including collaborations with other performing and visual artists. These pieces are digital manipulations Källén created from original photographs taken by Julian over the years. The therapeutic rewards of working on these pieces have been at least as great as the artistic rewards for Källén.

In the first two split-screen images, the collaborative works are shared alongside Julian’s original photographs. The first shows a collaborative end-product obviously similar to the original photograph. The second shows a more greatly manipulated, abstract end-work that requires more study to see how it derived from Julian’s photograph. The remaining pieces are shown without Julian’s inspiration photographs so as to imbue a greater collaborative sense - one where the viewer cannot be sure where the son ends and the mother begins. They must be seen as inexorably one.

Julian and Karen Togashi, Lucerne, Switzerland, 2006

Julian and Källén Togashi in Lucerne, Switzerland, 2006