The lucid and explicit concept of history and memory, and the journalistic and fastidious research which materializes the concept are the two rudiments that drive Yoneda’s artistic practices.  Her After the Thaw series of 2004, taken in Hungary and the Republic of Estonia, is an attempt to unravel and extricate their histories and memories from their current states.  Yoneda’s diligent investigation on the nature of time, experiences, and emotions that are embodied within the photographic images adds density and gravity to the seemingly mundane, banal everyday sceneries.  In Hungary, a nation famous for its hot-springs, Yoneda selected water as her leitmotif.  The deep blue pool, decorative patterns of the wall and tiles, and the bench at the side, connote the designs of the socialist era in her Lovers, Dunaújváros (formerly Stalin City).  Again, in Hajdúszoboszló, a city famous for its treatment for rheumatism, Yoneda photographs a mud-bath spa in a building complex; an style favored as a typical social-realist architecture.  It seems impossible to imagine the tumultuous lives the elderly in the image must have lived, from their seemingly peaceful and content expressions. Meanwhile, in the Republic of Estonia, which declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, Yoneda met a survivor of the Forest Brothers, a community which promoted the resistance movement.  The man that returned to his homeland after having endured undercover operations, an amputation of an arm, forced-labor, and deportation, seems to be enjoying the quiet life he now lives as he stands in front of his fields in Yoneda’s photograph.  Paldiski too carries as grave history, where all Estonians were deported to in 1940, and soon after became the central training base for the Soviet Union’s atomic submarines.  However, the two in Playing, Paldiski, Estonia chat contentedly and peacefully on the branch of an uprooted and knocked-down tree.  Within the gap between current sceneries and their historical pasts, which Yoneda exposes through her research, lie the compressed and unfathomable layers of memories and time, distinct and unique in each of their cases.

明晰的历史、记忆概念，和为实现这一概念所作的不遗余力的新闻式调查，是驱动米田知子(Yoneda Tomoko)的艺术实践的两道基本要素。她完成于2004年的摄影系列“雪融之后”（After the Thaw），摄于匈牙利和爱沙尼亚共和国，即是一种从其现状中解开和抽取历史与记忆的尝试。米田对摄影图像包含的时间、经验和情感本性的勤奋探索，为这看似世俗、寻常的日常景象添加了密度与份量。在匈牙利这个以温泉知名的国度，米田将“水”选作她的母题。在她的“恋人，多瑙新城（原斯大林市）”[Lovers, Dunaújváros (formerly Stalin City)]中，深蓝的泳池、墙面与瓷砖的装饰纹样和边上的座椅，暗示着社会主义时期的设计。在豪伊杜索博斯洛（Hajdúszoboszló）这座以风湿治疗闻名的城市，米田摄下一座建筑综合体中的一个泥浆浴场——典型的社会主义现实主义建筑风格。从照片中长者似乎平和、知足的表情，似乎很难想象他们曾经历的动荡的生命历程。同时，在1990年脱离苏联宣布独立的爱沙尼亚共和国，米田遇到了一位当年反抗苏联占领的爱沙尼亚游击队“森林兄弟”的幸存者。他在经历了秘密行动、一条手臂被截肢、劳役和放逐之后又回到了故乡。在米田的摄影中，当他站在自己的田地前，他似乎正享受着现在的平静生活。帕尔迪斯基 (Paldiski)也有着沉重的历史，1940年，所有爱沙尼亚人被驱逐至此，不久以后即成为苏联的核潜艇训练基地。然而，在“玩耍，爱沙尼亚帕尔迪斯基”（Playing, Paldiski, Estonia）中，两个人在连根拔起倒伏在地的树上知足平静地闲谈。在当前的场景与米田通过研究揭示的历史过往之间的裂缝中，是经压缩的、深不可测的一层层记忆与时间，就其每一例，都是独特而唯一的。