Hiroshi Sugimoto

Sugimoto’s first solo exhibition in London is a sombre, meditative affair – the cool atmosphere of the Serpentine Gallery playing host to a dark meditative poetry of images.

The Serpentine gallery is situated in Kensington gardens; it is an educational charity like the photographer’s gallery in Leicester Square. The building was originally a tea pavilion in 1934 and still retains a pre-war elegance, which stands out among contemporary galleries. The gallery was founded in 1970 by the arts council of Great Britain and is now supported by the arts council of England who provide approximately a quarter of its annual funding and a grant from Westminster city council. It raises the rest of its income through corporate sponsorship, charitable organizations, individual donations and merchandising. It had a re-opening in 1998 after a £4 million renovation funded by the National Lottery through the arts council of

England and several other corporate and charitable donors. The Serpentine aims to present modern and contemporary art in a dynamic exhibition venue along with running education and architecture programs. The gallery attracts around 400,000 visitors a year

This seems to join the installation with the seascapes where Sugimoto draws on ideas about the ancient transcendental power of the sea. This idea of an ancient, spiritual, historic connection between man and time is central to the exhibition.

While man has visibly changed the face of the landscape we have not visibly changed the surface of the seas. This is where Sugimoto’s obsessions with time and continuity merge – the continuous life of the sea and the humbling age of it. Sugimoto wants us to somehow commune with our ancient ancestors through his art; this is especially evident in his installation ‘In Praise of Shadows’. This installation is located physically and metaphorically at the heart of the exhibition. I believe it is also central to understanding Sugimoto’s desire to ‘evoke ancient memories of our human ancestors.’ A single candle about 1.5m above the floor lights the dingy room while directly behind it hang two lithographs taken by the artist. Each of the lithographs is of another candle; their exposure time was the duration of the burning of the candle. Here Sugimoto recalls early cave paintings, which were made by candlelight over the course of many hours similar to his lithograph exposures. I’m reminded of a book called ‘The Drowned World’ by JG Ballard in which characters in a post-apocalyptic swamp.

Some topics in this essay:
ACTUAL EXHIBITS, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Praise Shadows’, Leicester Square, Martin Herbert, National Lottery, Pacific Ocean, JG Ballard, QUOTE SOURCES, Atsuko Koyanagi, arts council, hiroshi sugimoto, serpentine gallery, ‘in praise shadows’, visibly changed, ‘in praise, central exhibition, gallery koyanagi, praise shadows’, eye level, candle sugimoto,