Hiroshi Sugimoto: Still Life

Hiroshi Sugimoto
Still Life
Pace London

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Olympic Rain Forest (gelatin silver print), 2012 [Detail]

A copy of a copy of another copy from a possible copy. We're way beyond simulations and simulacrum; from the original and reality - whatever that could be. We're living through perceptions, memories of what could have been, and not what can be, just like in a cinema projection, in a computer screen. Seeing, wanting to increasingly see what that's not to see anymore. Not even a shadow of a figure.

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Olympic Rain Forest (gelatin silver print), 2012 [Detail]

Reality doesn't make any sense when one's all alone in a place packed of model bodies, financial professionals, carnal environments. It is like those photos of dioramas by Hiroshi Sugimoto. Empty backgrounds for a lifeless life. Destitute of life and all other living beings it is not worth living. Even when love subdue time and space. I do miss those physical sensations, those intense feelings gained from bodily interactions. It is a big Still Life of void and emptiness. One of these days I will get in to one of those non-smoking places and smoke. Will stay as long as I want and no one, no one will say a damn thing about it.

Hiroshi Sugimoto, California Condor (gelatin silver print), 1994 [Detail]

«Hiroshi Sugimoto (b. 1948, Tokyo, Japan) has defined what it means to be a multi-disciplined contemporary artist, blurring the lines between photography, painting, installation, and most recently, architecture. His iconic photographs have bridged Eastern and Western ideologies, tracing the origins of time and societal progress along the way. Preserving and picturing memory and time is a central theme of Sugimoto’s photography, including the ongoing series Dioramas (1976– ), Theaters (1978– ), and Seascapes (1980– ). His work is held in numerous public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The National Gallery, London; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Smithsonian Institute of Art, Washington, D.C., and Tate, London, among others.» [... MORE ...]