Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibition attracts on Japan’s religious previous and current

It doesn’t get extra site-specific than ‘Hiroshi Sugimoto – The Descendant of the Kasuga Spirit’,  a brand new exhibition at Kasuga-Taisha, an Eighth-century Shinto Shrines complicated within the historical metropolis of Nara in Japan’s Kansai area, which displays the shut relationship between the Kasuga-embraced Japanese artist and the sacred web site. 

Sugimoto, whose creative expression spans sculpture, pictures, performing artwork and structure, can be an acclaimed collector of Shinto and Buddhist antiques, notably from Kasuga. For Sugimoto, Shinto – a Japanese animist faith relationship again to the Eighth century whose minimalist aesthetics are the muse of Japanese refinement – got here first. Then Buddhism unfold in Japan and the 2 had been fused. 

‘Kasuga’s artwork got here to me, it’s not the opposite approach spherical,’ he says. ‘I be taught immensely from the masterpieces I gather. They’re so inspiring. Now that our civilisation is on a downhill trajectory, we should always be taught from the great thing about historical occasions. The deeper I discover Shinto and Buddhist artwork, the extra it reveals the self-love of latest artwork’, quips the artist. ‘I purchase antiques by promoting my artworks. My assortment generates a round system.’

Thoughtfully curated below the supervision of Sugimoto, the present consists of two chapters. The Nationwide Treasure Home showcases greater than 90 Kasuga antiques, comparable to Kakemonos, objects and masks from the Eighth to the sixteenth century, together with items chosen from the artist’s non-public assortment. 

To attach heritage and modernity, Sugimoto has adorned the again of a deer statuette with one among his iconic works, 5 components, a miniature five-storey tower product of optic glass. (Based on Shinto mythology, the Kasuga god appeared on the again of this sacred animal.) If this chapter signifies the artist’s inventive motivations, his new works reveal a daring new course. 

Giant – 215cm x 565cm – folding screens of color pictures are unfold throughout eight panels. For this, he employed the most recent digital strategies utilizing emulsion coating to repair enlarged platinum prints on Japanese paper Washi, an experimental method Sugimoto has been exploring lately. Platinum prints function richer nuances of black, which add placing depth to the artist’s ink painting-like pictures, whereas Washi, with its thick, matte, textured high quality, serves as the proper materials for Japanese-style screens. 

Two folding screens displayed within the Treasure Home present panoramic photographs of the Kasuga Grand Shrine, captured throughout completely different situations, from completely different angles. However probably the most spectacular could be discovered at Wakamiya-Jinja, a Twelfth-century auxiliary shrine within the higher space of the worship web site. Positioned in Kagura-den, a corridor going through the shrine and devoted to holy dance and music is the Kankitsuzan mountain folding display. The panorama depicts the huge web site of the Enoura Observatory-Odawara Artwork Basis, established by Sugimoto himself in Kanagawa to deal with his architectural masterpieces, artefacts and Shinto artwork assortment. A small purple gateway on the picture is a subsidiary Kasuga shrine that was re-enshrined earlier this yr. 

On the different finish of the corridor is a monochrome {photograph} of air and water, one of many poetic seascapes from the sequence Kaikei, shot world wide over a long time. The Japan Sea, immortalised in Sugimoto’s pictures in 1987 has been displayed in many alternative conditions however seems significantly dignified on this sanctuary. Certainly, nothing is by chance for Sugimoto, and the whole lot pertains to celebration and respect for nature. ‘Although the traditional animist thoughts seems to be vanishing in fashionable civilisation, it nonetheless stays within the coronary heart of Japanese individuals. That is what seems in my creative expression’, says the artist. ‘I really feel so blessed. Generally I obtain revelations in my desires about my subsequent work.’

‘Hiroshi Sugimoto – The Descendant of the Kasuga Spirit’, is on view till 13 March 2023 on the Kasuga-Taisha shrine in Nara, Japan. kasugataisha.or.jp (opens in new tab); sugimotohiroshi.com (opens in new tab)