Happy New Year!
Peace, love and happiness for 2005!
新年明けましおめでとうございます！
Archive for December, 2004
Kikuji Kawada “Car Maniac”
The current exhibition of Kikuji Kawada’s works from the 1950s/60s I just wrote about reminded me of his more recent works I hold in high esteem: the series “Car Maniac”. I have seen these works for the first time at the Internationale Phototage Herten (Germany) in 1999.
The series was also included in Kawada’s solo exhibition “Theatrum Mundi” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2003 and Kawada published it in his extremely beautiful (and today rare book) “The Globe Theater” in 1998.
I found the images from “Car Maniac” in the web at Nikon Web Gallery with an explanation by the artist:
Car Maniac
If one can find true form of an image in a photograph, whether it was made through chemical process or digital operation, the image is original and futuristic. In these photographs, unconscious time, like biological clock, that is unique to photographs must exist and new languages must be buried. There is unexpectedness in images, and the more variations in the moments there are, the more scenes that give you vast imagination you have. I try to photograph cocktail of time that is different from time in movies or in literature.
Progress of machine and electronic technology aims at the ultimate that is beyond human brains, therefore imagination in photography also needs to be changing. However it is, we need to keep finding new and active images. Like Archimedes or Edgar Allan Poe, it would be great if I could say “Eureka = I found it”. In time flowing within photographs, there is imagination to find a sign. The time is also flowing in compound and multi-layered rich multigraphs. I believe such a banquet of images is what the future photography should be. All pieces here are part of a series titled “Car Maniac” that I have been working on since 2001.
Kikuji Kawada
PS: the date for the series in this text is wrong, but it is a little bit unclear when he actually began it. His book “The Globe Theater” lists works from 1991-1998. The catalogue to last years exhibition “Theatrum Mundi” in Tokyo mentions 1997 [p. 67].
Kikuji Kawada at P.G.I., Tokyo
Kikuji Kawada “The Map 1960-1965″ at Photo Gallery International.
IMHO this exhibition is a must see if you happen to be in Tokyo until Feb. 10.
Except in publications I have not seen his legendary book “The Map” yet, but it seems to be one of the most impressive photography books of the 20s century…
Kawada’s first photo-book “The Map” published in 1965, was received with sensational surprise, and gave him a decisive reputation. The book impressed the viewers with stimulus images through their eyes, by repeating visual exposures of the stains on the basement ceiling of Atomic Bomb Dome, and other symbolic objects that associate with the memory of World War II.
The photographic prints of The Map were introduced first in 1961 at Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo, before the book was produced, and then in an exhibition, New Japanese Photography, held at Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1974. They have been shown also at such exhibitions as “Japon des Avant-Gardes 1910 - 1970″ (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1986), “Beyond Japan: A Photo Theatre” (Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1991), and recently “Theatrium Mundi” (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2003).
The selected platinum palladium prints around 30 images from The Map including images of stains all over the Dome ceiling is exhibiting this time. The images of these stains, left by people perished in the Dome, are the core of the construction of The Map. It is for the first time that the original prints of The Map is exhibited. These prints create the new world of The Map which is completed as the final version of The Map.
The exhibition will be linked up with the new photo-book version of The Map, now under production by Getsuyo-sha publishing company.
Kijiku Kawada Profile
Born in Ibaraki Prefecture, 1933. Graduated from the Department of Economics, Rikkyo University, 1955. Staff photographer, Shincho-sha, 1955-1959. Organized “VIVO” photographers agency with E.Hosoe, S.Tomatsu, I.Narahara, and others, 1959. Annual Award, The Photographic Society of Japan (1996); Domestic Artist Prize, Higashikawa Award, Higashikawa International Photography Festival (1996); Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize (2004) Kawada had one-person exhibition “Kikuji Kawada: Theatrum Mundi” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo (2003), and his works are exhibiting at many group exhibitions at the major museums in the world.
(quotes from P.G.I.)
Tomoko Sawada at MAK, Vienna
Tomoko Sawada “Desire to Mimic”, at MAK, Vienna, until Feb. 6, 2005
This year was very successful for Tomoko Sawada. She just had her second exhibition at Zabriskie Gallery, New York, she received the prestigious Kimura Ihee Award in Tokyo and the International Center of Photography Infinity Award in the category of Young Photographer. Now she has her first solo show at a museum.
At MAK (Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art) she exhibits her series “ID 400″, “Costumes” and/or “Omiai”.
“Omiai” is a traditional formal marriage interview for which a set of photographs of the potential bride is produced by a specialized professional photographer. Sawada similarly portrays herself for “Omiai” as thirty different candidates for arranged marriages.
In “Costumes” the focus is “on uniforms and the clothes associated with certain jobs, a theme inspired by her own work experience. She noticed that people’s attitude toward another person changes greatly according to their occupation. She set out to explore this powerful interchange between status, identity and work as symbolized by different uniforms”. (Quote Zabriskie Gallery)
For “ID 400″ Sawada did 400 self portraits in a public photo booth with a constantly changed appearance.
I am not sure if “Omiai” is really exhibited at MAK. The English press release talks about “Omiai” and “ID 400″ while in contrary the press release in German language mentions “Costumes” and “ID 400″.
From MAK press release:
“In her self portraits the Japanese artist Tomoko Sawada poses herself with self-confidence and irony. The 26 year-old slips into a variety of roles in the tradition of Cindy Sherman. Thus in her photo series, “Omiai” she has herself photographed for a marriage bureau in Tokyo. According to Japanese tradition eligible young women are sent by their families for a session in a photo studio. The “model photos” are then distributed in the hope of a good match. Sawada does not pose as Sawada or at least not quite. She takes on the roles of thirty different women, here in a traditional kimono, there in a business suit reminiscent of her passport photo series “ID 400″. While passport photographs usually identify people, Sawada uses the automatic photo booth in order to conceal her identity. Acting out, she disguises herself fully 400 times in order to settle accounts with current cliches and depictions of women.”
Yurie Nagashima at Scai the Bathhouse and Nadiff, Tokyo
Over ten years ago when Yurie Nagashima won at age 20 the Urban Art#2 Award (1993) she became almost overnight the first “girly photographer” (onna no ko shashinka) in Japan. She and Hiromix who entered the scene in 1995 became role models for many young Japanese women and inspired them to become a photographer too. Since then the number of female photographers at photography schools increased considerably to around 50%. Both, Yurie Nagashima and Hiromix, talked about themselves and their lives through their pictures, but IMHO Nagashima was and is much more personal in her work not only depicting her friends but also the daily life of her family (including nude photographs of her father and mother).
Nagashima’s and Hiromix’ career took very different ways since the mid 1990s. While Hiromix became a star who concentrated on her commercial work with famous Japanese actors, actresses and pop stars, Nagashima left Japan to study photography in the US. After her return to Japan she published in 2000 her book “Pastime Paradise” which gives an overview about her work. Now four years later she exhibits her recents work “Candy Horror” at gallery Scai the Bathhouse and “not six” at Nadiff Gallery. Additionally her new book “not six” is published this month - it’s already on my wish list :-).
