Hiroshi Sugimoto Exhibition :: Hayward Gallery

 

 

 

히로시 스기모토는 일본 현대미술의 가장 중요한 작가 중 하나이며 현대사진의 거장이다.

스기모토는 장인적 사진기술, 간결한 형식과 철학적 깊이를 동반한 연작들을 제작해왔다.

누구나 사진을 찍을 수 있는 시대, 시각 이미지가 범람하고 손가락 끝으로 사진을 조작하는 게 일반적인 오늘날 스기모토의 작품은 시대를 거스르는 것도 같다. 

 

스기모토는 자연광, 음영, 대상의 순수성을 잘 이용하는 것으로 다른 작가들과 차별화된다. 

스기모토의 작업 방식은 한순간을 포착하는 것이 아닌 대상의 순수성을 장시간 셔터를 개방해 시간을 압축한다.

시간의 흐름을 화면 안에 담는다.

 

미술, 역사, 과학, 종교, 동서양 철학을 넘나들어 작업하는  스기모토의 사진은 가상과 실재의 경계가 의미 없는 시대 급변하는 사회 속에서 시간의 깊이를 숙고하게 한다. 

 

 

 

'a beautiful, enthralling and mediative show'   &   'supremely elagant'

 

 

 

Hiroshi sugimoto is constantly playing with the fact that photography is a medium that lends itself both to documenting, but also to invention.'

 

Over the past 50 years, Sugimoto has created pictures which are meticulously crafted, deeply thought-provoking and quitely subversive. 

 

  Featuring key works from all of the artists' major photographic series, this survey highlights Sugimoto's philosophical yet playful inquiry into our understanding of time and memory, and photography's ability to both document and invent. The exhibition also includes lesser-known works that reveal the artist's interst in the history of photography, as well as in mathematics and optical sceiences. 

 

Curated by Ralph Rugoff 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diorama

 

<디오라마> (1975-) 연작은 뉴욕 자연사박물관의 디오라마를 담은 사진이다.

박제 또는 3차원 오브제로 구성된 디오라마는 연출된 장면이지만 감상자에게 실재의 이미지로 전환되어 야생의 한 장면을 포착한 듯한 착각을 일으킨다.

 

 

 

 

Here you're actually looking at 2 hours of time that's been weirdly compressed into this very disconnecting image.

 

 

Theaters

 

스기모토는 <극장>(1975-) 연작을 위해 미국 전역에 흩어진 1920-30년대의 아르데코식 극장을 1950-60년대의 씨네마 홀과 자동차 극장들을 찾아다녔다. 한 편의 영화를 사진 한 장에 담아내는 것으로 흐르는 시간을 하나의 프레임에 담았다. 

 

카메라 렌즈의 조리개를 영화 상여시간 내내 노출시킨 결과 영화 속 이미지들은 사라지고 스크린에는 백색의 화면만 남았다. 영화가 상영되는 동안 보이지 않던 극장 내부가 사진 속에 모습을 드러낸다. 

 

 

 

In 1976, Sugimoto set up his camera in the back of a New York cinema, setting the exposure time to match the length of the film that was about to begin. The resulting photograph compressed the duration of the film into a single, still image of a glowing white screen. 'To watch a two-hour movie.' the artist comments, 'is simply to look at 172,800 photographic afterimages. I wanted to photograph a movie, with all lits appearance of life and motion in order to stop it again. 

 

The brilliant white screens at the centre of these photographs function as their only light source, illuminating the imposing architecture of American movie palaces built in the early 20th century. Amid eerily empty theatres, they seem alternately to constitute a glaring void or a luminously radiant presence, as if alluding to a spiritual aspect of the collective ritual of movie-going. 

 

Sugimoto went on to explore this aproach within a variety of cinematic and theatrical settings: Drive-Ins (1993) captures the light trails of planes and stars behind outdoor screens during the photographs' long exposure; Opera House (2014) depicts the historic European theatres that inspired the gradiose decor of their American imitations; most recently, Abandoned Theaters(2015) exposes the unfortunate fate and slow ruin of the classic American movie house. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portraits

 

<초상> 연작은 화가들의 초상화를 토대로 제작한 런던 마담투소박물관의 밀랍조각을 사진에 담았다. 

한 장의 사진과 회화와 조각 그리고 사진이 구현하는 재현의 역사를 담음으로써 사진의 진실성을 철저하게 무너진다.  

 

실존하는 인물이 아닌, 회화를 기반으로 제작된 조각상을 사진으로 찍음으로써, 사실과 거짓의 경계를 흐린다. 

 

 

 

Many photographers have captured the famouse faces of their cultural moment. But in this gallery, Sugimoto presents royalty, politicians, writers and artists across a span of 500 years. For this time travelling undertatking, the artist borrowed wax models from Madame Tussauds in London, using his camera to revivify a cast of famous characters. 

 

The subjects of these pictures are not people, but waxworks-yet, as these images reveals, Tussauds' figures can look eerily lifelike when photographed with all the trappings of conventional portraiture. Working at night, when the museum was closed, the artist removed his chosen figures from their stagery displays, and isolated them against a black backdrop. Studio lighting further heightens their uncanny, lifelike appearance, softening sheeny skin and accentuating elaborate costumes. 

 

While Tussauds' waxworks are created 2% larger than life, allowing for the slow shrinkage of wax, Sugimoto has enlarged his sitters by around 20%, bolstering the impression of portraiture in hte grand historical tradition, while creating a sense of uncertainty about the nature of exactly who - or what - we are looking at. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Architecture

 

Since 1997, Sugimoto has photographed more than 90 modernist builidngs around the world. These structures were designed by celebrated 20th century architects such as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Lois Barragan. 

 

'I set out to trace the beginnings of our age via architecture,' Sugimoto explains. 'Pushing out my old large-format camera's focal length to twice-infinity - [so that] the view through the lens was an utter blur - I discovered that superlative architecture survives the onslaught of blurred photography. Thus I began erosion-testing architecture for durability, completely melting away many of the buildings in the process.'

 

'The starting point for an architect,' Sugimoto notes, 'is to imagine a building's ideal form.' By deliberately obscuring his subjects, the artist seeks to convey a sense of the original vision of these buildigns as they might have appeared in the mind's eye of their designers. 

 

In a seeming paradox, Sugimoto has also suggested that these shadowy forms conjure 'architecture after the end of the world.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conceptual Forms

 

Sugimoto claims that he 'never was much good at mathematics'. He explains: 'I understand with my eyes and need to verify things visually. I just couldn't see the beauty in equations.' But in 2002, after seeing and handling the plaster mathematical models in the University of Tokyo's collection, their surprising forms ignited his interest in mathematical thought. 

 

Made in Germany in the late 19th century, these curious objects are physical representations of mathematical concepts, constructed as teaching aids and exported all over the world. In Sugimoto's eyes, ''the beauty of these pure mathematical forms was a wonder to behold, far outshining abstract sculture'. In the 1930s they had been celebrated by surrealist artistsi n Paris, including Man Ray, who photographed them. But whereas Man Ray emphasised the objects' anthropomorphic qualities, Sugimoto aimed to 'remodel' them: 'I feel like I'm carving this out of conceptual form... like I'm shaping the forms, using a camera insted of chisel.' Shot from below, at very close range, the small plaster models appear monumental, their slightly chipped and scuffed edges conveying a sense of their belonging to 'old civilizations: Greek, Roman, East Asian, Indian.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lighting Fields

 

스기모토는 2006년부터 <번개 치는 들판> 연작을 제작한다.

40만 볼트의 전기를 금속판에 맞대는 위험천만한 실험을 통해 만들어진 인공번개 이미지를 촬영한 것이다.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sea of Buddha

 

<부처의 바다>는 13세기 초에 지어진 교토의 사찰 산주산겐도 내의 천수관음보살 1001개를 48장의 사진에 담은 연작이다. 산수산겐도의 불장은 불교에서 말하는 사후세계의 낙원인 정토를 구현한 것이다. 

 

스기모토는 이 연작을 통해 현대미술이 사진 속 천수관음보살처럼 800년의 세월 후에도 남을지에 대한 질문을 한다. 

스기모토는 과거와 전통을 현재로 가져오면서 지금의 예술에 대해 끊임없이 고민한다. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seascapes

 

<바다풍경> (1980-) 연작은 스기모토가 전 세계의 바다를 찾아 다니며 담아낸 풍경이다.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marchel Duchamp

 

He was Inspired by Marcel Duchamp. 

 

 

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references:

 

 

Hiroshi Sugimoto is generously supported by the Exhibition Supporters' Group: Fraenkel Gallery, Marian Goodman Gallery, Gallery Koyanagi, the Rory and Elizabeth Brooks Foundation, Beth and michele Colocci, Suling C Mead, Manizeh and Danny Rimer, Maria and Malek Sukkar, Michael G and C Jane Wilson and those who wish to remain anonymous. 

Additional support has been provided by the Japan Foundation and the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. The exhibition catalogue is kindly supported by Joe and Marie Donnelly and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiQDUudxsD4&t=206

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxiyDIYOYKI

 

 

https://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/

Hiroshi Sugimoto