Hiroshi Sugimoto
dal 19/11/2014 al 23/1/2015
Segnalato da
19/11/2014
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Pace London - Burlington Gardens, London
Still Life: An exhibition of seventeen large-format photographs from the artist's ongoing Diorama series executed between 1976 and 2012. Capturing large-scale dioramas inside natural history museums, Sugimoto's photographs initially seem to be documents of the natural world, featuring far-flung landscapes and wildlife.
London—Pace London is pleased to present Hiroshi Sugimoto: Still Life, an exhibition of seventeen
large-format photographs from the artist’s ongoing Diorama series executed between 1976 and
2012. The exhibition will be on view at 6 Burlington Gardens from 21 November 2014 to 24 January
2015.
Capturing large-scale dioramas inside natural history museums, Sugimoto’s photographs initially
seem to be documents of the natural world, featuring far-flung landscapes and wildlife. Sugimoto,
however, dwells in the artifice of the images. Composed in crisp black and white and sharp tones,
the pristine quality and stillness of these large-scale pieces reveal the inherent artificiality of the
constructed worlds contained within their frames.
Surveying his Diorama series, the exhibition highlights recurring themes and images that have
sustained Sugimoto’s interest and work for almost four decades. Some of the works on view from
1980 were recently printed for the first time, and some images from 1974 and 1994 are exhibited in
larger sizes than their initial printings.
The earliest works on view in the exhibition are dated to 1976, when Sugimoto first moved to New
York and visited the American Museum of Natural History. “The first time I saw a diorama I was
overwhelmed by the fragility of existence that it captured. Being models of nature, dioramas include
many of the world’s constituent parts,” Sugimoto wrote. “The only thing absent is life itself. Time
comes to a halt and never-ending stillness reigns.” The works both breathe new life into the natural
scenes, conjuring a false sense of reality, while highlighting their lifelessness.
Essential to Sugimoto’s oeuvre are the concepts of memory and preservation, evident here in his
exploration of nature as mediated through the museum. Since beginning this series, the notion of
fossilization has become an important concept for Sugimoto and permeates his work. Exploring it as
a historical fact and photographic conceit, the fossil serves as a living record and point of departure
into history, crystalizing a moment in time into a singular object. Sugimoto’s process echoes thisnotion, capturing these frozen scenes on his large-format camera with specific lighting and extended
exposures, lasting as long as twenty minutes.
The exhibition documents the evolution of themes, beginning with Polar Bear (1976), his first
photograph from the series. Returning to the American Museum of Natural History in New York where
the project began, his work from 2012 reveals a heightened influence in landscape, envisioning the
world as it was before and will be after animal life has gone extinct. These pieces synthesize his
lifelong interest in the forces of history with the changes of the natural world and central questions of
photography. “All over the planet, nature is being transformed into un-nature at breakneck speed,”
Sugimoto wrote. “My life is part of natural history. I long to know where that history came from and
where it is going.”
Image: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Olympic Rain Forest, 2012, gelatin silver print, Edition 1 of 5, Edition of 5, © Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy The Pace Gallery
Opening: Thursday 20 November 2014, 6.30–8.30 p.m.
Press Contact:
Nicolas Smirnoff, nicolas@pacegallery.com / +44 203 206 7613
Pace London
6 Burlington Gardens
Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.