Takashi Homma: New Documentary

2011.1.8(Sat.) - 2011.3.21(Mon.)

Information

Period:

2011.1.8(Sat.) - 2011.3.21(Mon.)
10:00 - 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays)

Venue:

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

Closed:

Mondays and Jan 11 (Open on Jan 10 and Mar 21)

Admission:

on the day
General : ¥1,000
College students : ¥800
Elem/ JH/ HS : ¥400
65 and older : ¥800

advance・group
General : ¥800
College students : ¥600
Elem/ JH/ HS : ¥300

Note: Tickets are joint admission for this exhibition and “Untitled: Tadaaki Kuwayama”
Tickets also allow admission to the Collection Exhibition

For More Information:

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Phone: +81-76-220-2800
Facsimile: +81-76-220-2802
E-Mail: info@kanazawa21.jp

Photographs by Takashi Homma are known for reflecting dry sentiment of the times and giving us a feeling of distance toward the subject. Dealing with a variety of themes, such as architecture, ocean waves, children seen in Tokyo and suburban scenery, he has serialized many of them over the years. Keeping away from describing narrative or emotion, his neutral viewpoint captures the subject unemotionally, which is suitably called “new documentary” that leans towards neither expression nor record advancing from the age when the two were specifically questioned. While he has kept having “a documentative viewpoint” since the start of his career as a photographer, he has tackled possibilities of the photographic expression by “approaching photography as art.” Recently in particular, his creative activities pursuing more subjective expressions have broadened while openly dealing with the real world and the times. In this exhibition, not only his prints in the past but also his latest works using different methods and media, such as silk screens based on photos, installations to be viewed through binoculars, books full of images as well as paintings are introduced, raising a question of “what photography is.” They lead viewers to think about the meaning of “seeing” through the reality reflected on the photographs. For example, there is Trails in pursuit of the trail of deer hunting in a snow-covered mountain and a painting on the same subject. Tokyo and My Daughter, his lifework for which he continues taking a picture of Tokyo scenery and a girl, and Widows are works that he re-photographed so-called “found photos” discovered in family albums of the protagonists. Thus, he intervenes, going beyond the limits of time, in photographed people’s eyes turned upon their families and friends.
Homma’s new work re-construction is a collection of works made into a book form, in which he re-photographed magazine covers and pages he edited. Others include exhibition leaflets, posters and
their proof sheets, which reveal how lightly he has been working all over media of different kinds. You may say that to re-photograph by his own hands what he photographed is a reviewing act in itself of photography as a medium.
For the display of this exhibition, Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA designed a booth in the area connecting exhibition rooms. With its light, graceful space arrangement, Homma’s works are all the more impressive.

Related Projects

Opening Talk

Takashi Homma × Noi Sawaragi
Date/time: Saturday January 8, 11:00 – 13:00
Venue: Lecture Hall, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Admission: No charge (with same-day admission ticket to this exhibition)
Capacity: Limited to first 80 arrivals
* Finished.

Works in the Exhibition

  • series of Trails, 2010

    Trails

    Red marks left on white snow. These blood-like stains can be regarded as proof of some creature caught in the hunt. It tells us nothing else, and we find ourselves trifled with ambiguity of reality as we observe only absence of life in the photograph. Displayed are reproduced prints of the series introduced in 2009 and a painting of the same title.

  • series of Together, 2007

    Together

    “Wildlife Corridors in Los Angeles,” a research project on the ecology of wild animals around Los Angeles was launched in cooperation with video artist Mike Mills in 2006. In the same year, Homma’s photographs and Mills’ texts were combined under the title Together and published in magazine “Coyote” No. 11 (Switch Publishing Co., Ltd., April 2006, pp.81-96). In this exhibition, the works photographed after the publication during 2006 and 2008 are exhibited as series Together.

  • M / Washington D.C., 2009 / 2010

    M

    Homma’s new series are silk-screen prints based on the photographs of the fast food chain which he continues taking. McDonald’s are extending the number of shops globally with the famous logo, and that multiplying aspect corresponds to the silk-screen method.

  • Monte Rosa, 2006

    Seeing Itself

    Mountains: Seeing Itself introduced in 2008 was reproduced for this exhibition. Looking into the darkroom through binoculars, you will find 12 light boxes. When brought into focus, mountains including
    Matterhorn, Eiger, Jungfrau, Monte Rosa, and others appear respectively.

  • re-construction, 2011

    re-construction

    Not limiting places for exhibiting his works to galleries and art museums, he has positively sought to present his works in magazines as well as advertisements. He re-photographed and re-edited those works into a book form for this series. Expressions shown in media circulating in large quantities might be poles apart from the established photography in the field of art. Both of them, however, constitute the body of Homma’s work, and this series reviews that aspect.

  • series of Widows,2009

    Widows

    In summer 2009, Homma visited Rapallo in Italy, a city with approximately 30,000 inhabitants located about 30km east of Genova, and photographed 11 widows living in Rapallo or Genova. This series was planned as he was invited to the 4th Contemporary Photography Festival in Rapallo in 2010. He photographed not only the widows’ portraits but also the inside of their houses and surroundings. What
    is more, he reproduced old snapshots that had been tucked away in their chest drawers and albums,
    and mixing them together, he compiled a photo book of the series.

  • series of Tokyo and My Daughter, 2010

    Tokyo and My Daughter

    A girl’s portraits and Tokyo scenery are incorporated by turns in most parts. The girl’s photos describing each stage of her growth; baby, kindergarten, elementary school and so on, look like a selection from family albums. You may guess that this series is the artist’s record following after his daughter’s growth as the title “My Daughter” suggests, but it is not the fact. It will lead you to give further consideration to images and contexts that you see in the photographs, and to think about what photography is.

Artist Profile

  • © Takashi Homma

    Takashi Homma

    Born in 1962 in Tokyo. Photographer. Takashi Homma received 24th Ihei Kimura Photography Award for "Tokyo Suburbia" in 1999. Published a photo book “TOKYO” from Aperture in New York in 2008. It consists of photographs taken during the period between 1993 and 2007 with a theme of Tokyo making a comprehensive collection of the past works. He has also published book titled “Tanoshii Shashin" (Heibonsha) in 2008. Assigned to a guest professor of graduate school of Tokyo Zokei University since 2010.
    http://betweenthebooks.com

    Major photograph books: ”Babyland” (Little More / 1995), ”Hyper Ballad: Icelandic Suburban Landscapes” (Switch Publishing / 1997), “Tokyo Children” (Little More / 2001), ”Tokyo and my Daughter” (Nieves / 2006), ”NEW WAVES” (PARCO Publishing /2007), ”trails” (Match and Company / 2009), ”widows” (Fantombooks / 2010), ”M” (Gallery 360° / 2010).

Credit

Organized by:

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
The Asahi Shimbun

Supported by:

Daishinsha
KAZUYO SEJIMA + RYUE NISHIZAWA / SANAA

In Cooperation with:

EPSON SALES JAPAN CORPORATION
Gallery 360°

Approved by Association for Corporate Support of the Arts, Japan