Tokihiro Sato @ Art Institute of Chicago

(Several days ago I posted something asking if anyone wanted to become a contributor to Thinking About Art and help extend the voice of this outlet (email me if interested, the more the merrier). I am very excited to introduce Kathleen Shafer, a local photographer who will be periodically publishing reviews and thoughts on art here at TAA. Shafer recently became a flight attendant and through her travels she will be able see art all over the country. Her first review follows and is about the Tokihiro Sato show currently at the Art Institute of Chicago.)

#330 Taiji
1998

I would recommend that you go into Gallery 1 at the Art Institute of Chicago without knowing a lot about the work you are about to see. If you won’t be in Chicago before May 8th, then you should read here about the 14 photographs (transparencies, actually) of Tokihiro Sato, who has exhibited widely in Japan but is less known here in the West.

Schooled photographers will recognize immediately the technique used to create the images. I myself thought back to my studio lighting class at NYU, where the most basic and primitive of image-making techniques is given as a first assignment to help students better understand the simple yet mystical process of photography, that is, drawing with light. You need a tripod, a flashlight, and a long exposure.

Before you let your mind wonder too far from the images with thoughts of how and what, make a quick loop around the gallery and absorb the light coming from both within the frame and literally behind the photographs. The transparencies are mounted a few inches from the wall, and from the side the lights from behind are revealed. The presentation elegantly lends itself to the body of the work, and quite honestly I have never before seen photographs like this. To the digital-obsessed artists and those who often argue that there is nothing more to be done with simple photography, I say to you - go see this show. There is still something to be done with an 8x10 view camera. There is still something to be done with an hour long exposure. Remember folks, photography is also a scientific and learned technique that takes years, even a lifetime, to master.

After you’ve made one round, go back again, and let your mind do that wondering it eagerly wants to. You are looking at landscapes either dotted with white lights or brushed with long or short strokes of white light. If you must know, the white dots are made from holding a small mirror and reflecting light back at the camera’s film plane. The strokes are made by taking a flashlight and painting the area you want to alter. The remainder of the scene is slowly passing through the lens, then the bellows, and finally onto the film. The exposure is so long that you can rarely make out figures moving through the scene. While the camera is recording an extended amount of both light and time, the result is a single frame, a fraction of a second it would seem, recording only those objects that have remained still throughout the exposure.

You imagine the ghosts walking through the frame - you know someone or something was there - but logic is telling you there are no ghosts. There are.

And one of them is Sato, moving throughout the frame to make these light imprints onto his film. You don’t see him, but you can imagine him stopping to make his mark, each and every dot, each and every stroke. Sato’s photographs are spiritual and reassuring, in that way you are reassured when you know there are things in this world you may not understand but don’t necessarily want to. You want the mystery, you want the beauty. You realize you may not need to know all the answers. Sometimes it’s just as well to let the ghosts pass by unnoticed.

Comments

[Jim Beecher]

Great blog J.T.

Thanks for bringing Sato to my attention.

See also:

http://www.tonkonow.com/sato.html

http://www.hainesgallery.com/Main_Pages/Artist_Pages/TSAT.bio.html

http://photoarts.com/gallery/SATO/satoexh.html

Jim Beecher

[bo]

There's a Sato photograph for sale at auction right now; details can be found at photoauctions.info.