To stand in front of one of Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photographs is a pleasure. One moment of stillness captured at his hand translates into endless time for the viewer who allows the atmosphere to be visually soaked into their thoughts.
Having utilised black and white photography almost exclusively since the 1970s, Sugimoto’s works exudes constructed thoughtfulness as illuminated via observations of time, space, shadow, light and the essence of being ‘alive’ in the present. His earliest series, Diorama’s, indicated Sugimoto’s interest in the objectiveness of photography. Stuffed animals, at home in their diorama’s in the American Museum of Natural History in New York, become more life-like when captured by Sugimoto’s lens. Likewise, the issues of reality and falsity are evident in his series of photographs of Henry VIII and his six wives in Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Using the same light that a painter during the subjects’ time may have used, the figures become eerily alive. Sugimoto says of this affect to the viewer, ‘’ if this photograph now appears lifelike to you, perhaps you should reconsider what it means to be alive here and now’’.
Sugimoto’s elegant investigation of architectural structures, as well as how shadows fall and form a variety of colour shades from within the walls of a Tokyo penthouse, further reiterate his ability to succinctly capture his curiosities in photographic format. He further acknowledges his interest in light and the actual photographic process itself, as in the series ‘Theatres’ – an ongoing study capturing whole films in one frame, whilst simultaneously archiving some exquisite movie theatres and nostalgic drive-in cinemas.
Together, the collection consists of approximately 70 photographs, making this exhibition the most comprehensive to be seen in Germany thus far. In Berlin, the retrospective is well-placed among the tranquility of the Mies Van Der Rohe designed Neue National Galerie. In this leg of the exhibition, which also tours Düsseldorf, Salzberg and Lucerne, the photography of Sugimoto is presented uniquely in connection to a few works belonging to other Berlin collections from the Gemäldegalerie and Alte Nationalgalerie. As well as including one of his streamlined sculptures, there is also a video of Sugimoto explaining the techniques behind his working processes, which rounds off a well-presented exhibition from this wonderfully thought-provoking artist.
Hiroshi Sugimoto Retrospective,
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
4 July – 5 October 2008
