Fantasies and Fairy Tales at Kagurazaka
Saori Miyake, “flood, curtain,” 2009, gelatine silver print, 45.7x 56 cm
Courtesy of Yuka Sashahara Gallery
Saori Miyake’s current exhibition Constellation 2 is a sequel to her earlier solo show at the Yuka Sashahara’s Gallery. Almost all the pieces on view are “photograms”—images made directly on film by taking advantage its light sensitive properties. Miyake’s poetic recollections of childhood (her subjects are young girls) work remarkably well with her chosen media that suggests as much as it actually shows. The black and white images trace the outlines of the objects and the subjects revealing just enough detail to trigger associations, yet not enough to make her dreamscapes tedious. The show is on though December 26th, after that the gallery will be relocating to Kanda.
One floor below, at the Ohshima Fine Art, Yuko Mori’s oil paintings portray a fantasy world borne of color. Her works immediately bring to mind Wassily Kandinsky’s Motley Life (1907), which is not that unusual considering Mori’s engagement with the relationships of color and space, and her emphasis on the importance of the initial encounter with the painting. She sees it as a crucial moment when the sensory input of the artist aligns with that of the viewer. On view through December 18th.
