Rinko Kawauchi "Illuminance"
The Gallery at Hermès
This event has ended.
All photographers rely on light, but Rinko Kawauchi seems to harness it. She observes the most fleeting, yet ordinary moments and reveals their extraordinary nature. Whether photographing a small frog on her father’s palm or a solar eclipse, Kawauchi creates a never-ending narrative that reads as a kind of visual poetry. Her new body of work, "Illuminance," is presented as a solo show for the first time in the United States at the Gallery at Hèrmes.
In 2001 with the simultaneous publication of three books in Japan, "Hanako," "Utatane," and "Hanabi," Kawauchi received instant recognition. And in the 10 years since, she has constantly revisited themes of life, death and the everyday. Armed with her Rolleiflex camera and its square format, Kawauchi often captures the world from an almost childlike perspective filled with secrets and the sublime: a dead swallow, a glowing rose, a bubble. But it is the light and her singular palette that transform these subjects into something almost spiritual.
[Image: Rinko Kawauchi "Untitled" (2009) c-print, mounted on Plexiglas © Rinko Kawauchi. Courtesy of the artist and FOIL GALLERY, Tokyo]
Media
Schedule
from May 20, 2011 to July 16, 2011
Artist(s)
Reviews
Rinko's work always feels like a guilty pleasure - sometimes the images can feel trite, schmaltzy, or even *gasp!* easy. But I'm finally getting around to seeing that her real strength is editing- her seemingly effortless work is actually very calculated. But it takes a while to see past how pretty the work is... (for me anyway.)