Alien

© Julia Wimmerlin - Alien registrationStarting off with a tabula rasa, ready to face new experiences and change © Julia Wimmerlin - Image from the Alien photography project © Julia Wimmerlin - Warding offSacred ropes ward off evil spirits and separate the sacred from the profane, invisible ropes do the rest View all images ↓
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Before moving to Japan, I have lived in three different countries and had experienced cultural shock. But it was Japan where, for the first time, I saw the difference between "foreigner" and "alien".

Before moving to Japan, I have lived in three different countries and had experienced cultural shock. But it was Japan where, for the first time, I saw the difference between "foreigner" and "alien".

 

10 years and 4 more countries later, I tried to reevaluate this experience of being an alien.

 

I am trying to show different physical, linguistic, cultural, morphological barriers that separate "locals" from “aliens”. Using my own archival photographs from Japan, I make associations with Japanese culture in an ignorant, "gaijin-like" way. As the project progresses, the light in the photographs becomes physically visible, which is exactly what happened in real life.

 

In Japan, I picked up a camera for the first time and since then I have been in constant search for light. Becoming an alien, you begin to get to know yourself and even see the rising sun.

© Julia Wimmerlin - Alien registrationStarting off with a tabula rasa, ready to face new experiences and change
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Alien registrationStarting off with a tabula rasa, ready to face new experiences and change

© Julia Wimmerlin - Image from the Alien photography project
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What would you like to drink?Language barrier is the easiest to overcome but also one of the most difficult to master (photo of the Japanese characters on a rusty texture means "drink")

© Julia Wimmerlin - Warding offSacred ropes ward off evil spirits and separate the sacred from the profane, invisible ropes do the rest
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Warding offSacred ropes ward off evil spirits and separate the sacred from the profane, invisible ropes do the rest

© Julia Wimmerlin - OutsiderThings are not what they seem, and you will always assume wrongly
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OutsiderThings are not what they seem, and you will always assume wrongly

© Julia Wimmerlin - Closed doorsAvoiding embarrassment to save face sometimes leads to closed doors
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Closed doorsAvoiding embarrassment to save face sometimes leads to closed doors

© Julia Wimmerlin - “If hidden, it’s elegant”Suppressed emotions and behavior etiquette “freeze” interactions with aliens
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“If hidden, it’s elegant”Suppressed emotions and behavior etiquette “freeze” interactions with aliens

© Julia Wimmerlin - Image from the Alien photography project
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Change your wayThe constraint culture of using physical barriers to deviate from natural state of things as seen in the art of bonsai

© Julia Wimmerlin - Image from the Alien photography project
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Change your wayThe constraint culture of using physical barriers to deviate from natural state of things as seen in the art of shibari

© Julia Wimmerlin - Blending in but standing outYou will always stand out no matter how you want to blend in
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Blending in but standing outYou will always stand out no matter how you want to blend in

© Julia Wimmerlin - Image from the Alien photography project
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A blinds-shaped collage of the rising sun taken at Mt. Fuji as an allegory for the physical barrier that nonetheless lets the light in.(A blinds-shaped collage from Mt. Fuji as an allegory for the physical barrier that nonetheless lets the light in)