Five Japanese photographers are taking photography back to the street in
the twelfth annual 'Contemporary Japanese Photography' exhibition at
the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum.
Exhibition view of "Today's Levitation 05/13/2011, 2012" by Natsumi Hayashi
Freed from the Weight of the World
The exhibition takes on a light tone from the very start with a huge
banner in the foyer of a pair of feet hovering above the pavement. This
is one of Natsumi Hayashi's large-scale jumping self-portraits.
Exhibition view of "Today's Levitation 06/16/2011 (3D), 2012" by Natsumi Hayashi
If
you're familiar with from her online and from her blog, you're
completely thrown off by the sheer scale of her photos, leaving no
question as to the distinction between these and the jumping photos your
friends post on Facebook. Hayashi has been making a name for herself
internationally for her series "Today's Levitation" in which she seems
to be floating effortlessly and expressionlessly in the center of each
meticulously composed photograph. People often wonder to which extent
these photos have been manipulated, but this is a testament to her
planning and preparation - not to mention her dedication to jump from
150 to 200 times for the one image she will eventually use.
Exhibition view of "Today's Levitation 06/01/2012, 2012" and "Today's Levitation: Ebisu Minami 2 Park, 2013" by Natsumi Hayashi
"Today's Levitation 06/01/2012" is a massive 8-meter long photo which
was taken at the Tama Center Station building in Tokyo - a relatively
ordinary station, but one that offered Hayashi an opportunity to appear
to be flying after cropping out the stairs beneath her feet. She
researched the location thoroughly to set up the shoot so she could jump
the 200 times not only the optimal the time of the day, but also the
optimal time of the year. A large pillar usually casts a shadow over
this location but Hayashi discovered that the morning of the autumnal
equinox (in September) is the only time in the year that this image
would be possible.
Exhibition view of "Today's Levitation: Ebisu Minami 2 Park, 2013" by Natsumi Hayashi
Hayashi also sometimes works backwards and accepted The Tokyo
Metropolitan Museum of Photography's invitation to make a work in the
vicinity of the museum. "Today's Levitation: Ebisu Minami 2 Park" was
made at a small park nearby, and is formed of a triptych of jumping
photos. To preserve the consistency of the shooting conditions, she
completed sets of three jumps, and repeated this 200 times.
Hayashi's works playfully question the reality that we perceive in
photos, for these images are simultaneously completely authentic,
time-specific and location-specific but they are also completely
fabricated. This feeling of artifice is enhanced by her 3D works - pairs
of the same photo taken at the same time but from a slightly different
angle. By viewing them as one, the three-dimensionality only adds to our
suspicion that this photo is in fact an unaltered slice of
past-reality.
Exhibition view of "Today's Levitation 06/16/2011 (3D), 2012" by Natsumi Hayashi
Despite Hayashi's relaxed body and expressionless face, the photos
radiate energy and a child-like joy, in seeing minute details at 1/500th
of a second, and the elevation of a format of photography that we are
all very familiar with.
Revealing the Invisible
Exhibition view of "Everything happens for a first time, 2011" by Katsumi Omori
The exhibition begins with Katsumi Omori's seemingly innocuous series of
17 portrait photos of cherry blossoms. They are composed without
artifice or pretense and the colors are washed-out to give the nostalgic
appearance of photos like those falling out of your parent's early
photo albums. However, upon closer look, we begin to notice the
emptiness and strangeness of each photo. Empty parks, cherry-blossom
past its prime, people waiting at bus stops, aimless roads, rubble, and
even an upturned boat. Cherry blossom viewing is an extremely popular
and joyous spring pastime in Japan, and its depiction in art goes back
hundreds of years, so the tone of these images are slightly troubling.
Exhibition view of "Everything happens for a first time, 2011" by Katsumi Omori
This series "Everything happens for a first time" was made in spring of
2011 as Omori's reaction to the 3-11 earthquake and nuclear disaster.
One month later he picked up his camera and followed the cherry blossoms
from his house in Chiba, north to the affected areas in Fukushima to
capture the scenes.
Exhibition view of "Everything happens for a first time, 2011" by Katsumi Omori
These photos are also puzzling for their strange pink circles in each
frame. These shapes and effects were made by "clackers", an American toy
from the 70s made from two plastic acrylic balls joined by a string
which were knocked together to create the 'clacking' noise. These toys
have since been discontinued due to safety concerns, but remain a
nostalgic item for many of the older generation. While in the States in
2010, Omori happened to find these pink clackers and began using it to
play with the light and he enjoyed the new perspective it offered just
as he used to do as a child. This takes on a more sinister meaning at
Fukushima where the pink balls of light hint at the invisible but
ominous threat of radiation. All the while, the cherry blossoms bloom
on.
Fotomo: Overcoming the Second Dimension
Detail of "A Document of Impersonal Art by Fotomo
(building collection), 1999-2002" by Kimio Itozaki
Kimio Itozaki's impressive "A Document of Impersonal Art by Fotomo
(building collection)" creates an entire street scene out of hundreds of
2-dimensional photos which really needs to be seen to be fully
appreciated. Fotomo is a technique Itozaki developed which stands for
photo + model, and has a super-realist dollhouse feel to it, or that of a
mid-00's computer game. No detail is spared - he photographed and
assembled not just the buildings and cars, but also the people,
lampposts, pavement and rooftops.
Detail of "A Document of Impersonal Art by Fotomo
(building collection), 1999-2002" by Kimio Itozaki
Detail of "A Document of Impersonal Art by Fotomo
(building collection), 1999-2002" by Kimio Itozaki
Photographing every angle of the
buildings was only possible because of the bursting of the economic
bubble, which led to the destruction and removal of many buildings.
Indeed, we see the empty lots with weeds starting to grow through.
Exhibition view of "Ebisubashi, Osaka, 2003" by Kimio Itozaki
Side view of "Ebisubashi, Osaka, 2003" by Kimio Itozaki
The smaller Fotomo "Ebisubashi, Osaka" takes the concept to another
level, utilizing dramatic illusion of depth and perspective, and using
multiple vanishing points in a scene of the most iconic place in Osaka
that almost everybody in Japan has been to at least once (often on
school trips).
Exhibition view of "Non-Euclidean Photo League (Fotomo) Camoflaged House, Hirai 2001" by Kimio Itozaki
The theme of the exhibition of changing the world from
the street is perhaps epitomized best by the 20 smaller fotomo originals
on the walls, which are actual working fotomos that appeared in the
Sampo no Tatsujin magazine from 1996-2004. The retro style and
hand-drawn tabs and labels personalize the still-incomplete fotomo
despite it being intended for mass-reprinting.
Exhibition view of "Nature on Roadside" series "Hibiscus Caterpillar, Fujisawa City, Sept 10 2012, 2013" and "European Hornet and Large Brown Cicada, Kodaira City August 16 2007, 2013" by Kimio Itozaki
Besides these, Kimio Itozaki is represented at this exhibition by
several other series, Hockney-esque photo-montages, and some series where
he takes on the techniques and conventions of macro animal photography
to photograph small 1/60th size figurines, insects, and even roadkill in
the urban landscape.
While the dead animals are morbid in their gaudy, high-focus, I can't
help but feel like they aren't the real subject matter here. For
Itozaki, the street is more than a stage for visual drama, but the
subject itself.
Exhibition view of "Nature on Roadside in Death" series by Kimio Itozaki
Fragments and Signs of Civilization
Exhibition view of "JPEG 2002-2013" by Naoki Kajitani
Naoki Kajitani's JPEG series began in around 2000 when he got his first
digital camera and he has hardly changed his methods or approach since -
he still uses a compact digital camera without the capability of high
resolution images that we all enjoy today. The 110 images stacked four
high cover two walls and show all the eye-catching things from the
street he has seen over the years. Individually each image gives the
sense of impulse when he took the photo, and together form a tapestry of
faded bright colors, fluoro-lights, rusted and peeling signboards and
bare female-skin from advertisements of seedy adult entertainment
venues.
Exhibition view of "JPEG 2002-2013" by Naoki Kajitani
These are all things found all over Japan from the suburbs to
the countryside towns, but we are conditioned to look away. Without
identifying information as to the location or time, or the presence of
actual people, these scenes could be almost anywhere. With JPEG Kajitani
confronts us with this side of Japan that is not often acknowledged and
the disposable nature of digital photography.
Exhibition view of "JPEG 2002-2013" by Naoki Kajitani
Restless Sleeper
Exhibition view of "(True Sleeper) Bench not for sitting on, 2013" by Takashi Tsuda
The first thing you notice in Takashi Tsuda's exhibition space are the
glowing light boxes with crystal-clear photos of empty park benches,
many at nighttime. This is the series True Sleeper (objects not for
sleeping on), which addresses the issues that homeless people in Japan
have in finding comfortable places to sleep.
Exhibition view of "(True Sleeper) Bench not for sitting on #11, 2013" by Takashi Tsuda
The beautifully shot images
with almost sculptural pieces of rubbish, fallen leaves and dramatic
shadows slowly become quite cynical: none of the park benches look
comfortable to lie on, as they are often designed with arm-rests that
prevent you from lying down.
Exhibition view of "(True Sleeper) Bench not for sitting on #2, 2013" by Takashi Tsuda
This is driven home by a set of three photos of the
well-known area in Shinjuku where the council built trash can-sized
yellow and green tube-like structures for the sole purpose of preventing
homeless people from sleeping there. Tsuda photographed these odd shapes with the angled
tops along with the construction cones and plastic chains that keep it roped-off at all times.
Exhibition view of "Site, 2011" by Takashi Tsuda
In the series "SITE", Tsuda tackles a similar issue of finding places to
sleep the night through all over Japan. First he set up rules for an 8-month
cycling and camping trip around Japan starting in Hokkaido in the
winter. At every place he arrived at, he would ask the locals the same
question "Could you tell me where you think I might be able to pitch a
tent?" and he would set up his tent, spend the night there and document
it before moving on to the next place.
Exhibition view of "Site, 2011" by Takashi Tsuda
Each work is in every sense
site-specific, and although we see his tent - the place he slept in for
eight months - the images are somehow deeply impersonal. Sometimes his
tent is next to the ocean or among huge piles of snow, but other times
it is tucked under bridges, between concrete structures or simply on the
street.
Tsuda - and the other four photographers - are each in their own way
bringing not just photography back to the street, but trying to bring
people back to the street - or rather, trying to make people notice the
street again, often in surprisingly different ways. In a country where
millions of people commute to and from work underground and live in
high-rise buildings, taking a new look at the street might really be the
best way to start changing the world.
text by Ruben van Mansum
Exhibition Info
Date: Dec 7, 2013 - Jan 26, 2014
Place: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Web: http://syabi.com/e/contents/exhibition/index-2018.html