Hiroshi Sugimoto "Lake Superior"
Pace MacGill
This event has ended.
Sequenced by the artist, this single-subject exhibition presents twelve 20 x 24 inch gelatin silver prints of Lake Superior from 1995 and 2003, many of which have never been seen by the public. An exhibition featuring two new bodies of conceptual three-dimensional work by Sugimoto will be on view concurrently at The Pace Gallery at 510 West 25th Street.
An extension of Sugimoto's iconic and ongoing Seascape series, in which the artist photographs bodies of water around the world within a consistently minimal visual framework, the images on display depict the largest of North America's Great Lakes, Lake Superior. Using an 8 x 10 inch view camera, Sugimoto frames each vista to contain solely water and sky, employing the central horizon line to divide the picture plane into equal proportions of light and dark, void and substance. Nearly identical in formal composition, the photographs appear to vary only in atmospheric conditions and time of day.
The concept of the series is central to Sugimoto's photographic oeuvre, however, and when viewed in succession, the pictures assume different moods and reveal subtle visual nuances. Variations in the natural elements that comprise each image emerge and invite comparison: waves within the vast expanses of water shift between amorphous and defined, horizon lines vanish and rematerialize with changes in air density, and tonal values are transformed by the quality of light.
Although Sugimoto's photographs explore the natural world as subject, they transcend the genre of landscape. In their lack of human presence, neutral vantage points, and limited reference to geographic setting, the pictures become metaphoric terrains that encourage viewers to contemplate primordial notions of time and space. Sugimoto says of his Seascape series, "Water and air. So very commonplace are these substances, they hardly attract attention?and yet they vouchsafe our very existence…. Mystery of mysteries, water and air are right there before us in the sea. Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home; I embark on a voyage of seeing."
[Image: Hiroshi Sugimoto "Lake Superior, Eagle River" ( 2003) gelatin silver print mounted to board 20 x 24 in.]
Media
Schedule
from October 27, 2011 to December 03, 2011