U.A. Walker, New York, 1978, private collection. Courtesy of the artist.
Born in Japan in 1948 Hiroshi Sugimoto represents a very special breed of person, one that realizes that the time we have is precious and needs to be documented. With his images of frozen time Sugimoto lets us look at the world in a whole new way, by analyzing the beauty of detail in a very different way then most photographers do. With his images of the oceans or of the theaters he asks us to forget the conventional and superficial and to look beyond the norm whether it be beyond our line of sight or beyond our perception of present time. When you learn what his images are about you start to think in a whole new way.
For More information on Sugimoto’s works have a look at the site that the Hirshhorn Museum did for a recent exhibit.
Upon a recent trip to Paris I discovered an artist that blew me away: William Kentridge. I visited the Marian Goodman Gallery on Rue du Temple and saw his 23-minute rendition of The Magic Flute. Kentridge, a South African artist who not only does art but also does set design for Operas (he is bringing his Magic Flute in its entirety to BAM in 2007), created a miniature theater called a Black Box or a Chambre Noir where he did the mis en scene of the opera with two projectors each displaying from either side (front and back) of the mini stage. The Black Box had its own room for display and ran all day every 23 minutes with seating for viewers. The Black Box as well as the original artwork that made up the decor of the stage were all on sale. Below a link to an article from New York Magazine from last February telling you more about this brilliant artist.
http://newyorkmetro.com/arts/art/profiles/15946/
