Experience the overwhelming "power of photography" at the Yokohama Museum of Art! Report on "Kishin Shinoyama Exhibition: The Power of Photography THE PEOPLE by KISHIN" and "Kishin Shinoyama Artist Talk"
"Kishin Shinoyama Exhibition: The Power of Photography THE PEOPLE by KISHIN" Report
All of the subjects in "Kishin Shinoyama Exhibition: The Power of Photography THE PEOPLE by KISHIN" are people. Moreover, "famous people known to everyone" of all ages and genders, such as actors, singers, musicians, athletes, dancers, and kabuki actors, are there, vibrantly embodying the aura and breath of the era in which they were active. The approximately 130 photographs are no longer just photographs. They are "unforgettable memories" that have shared time and eras with each of us.
The first thing that strikes you about this exhibition is the size of each piece. As you step into the venue, feeling a sense of nostalgia and grandeur at the portrait of John Lennon and Yoko kissing that is displayed at the entrance, each of the large panels of photographs looms before your very eyes. The works themselves are works that Shinoyama has previously published in magazines and photo books, so many of the photographs will be familiar to you, but the feeling of confronting "them" on a giant panel anew is, as Shinoyama himself said, not just "appreciating" but "experiencing" it. You will be overwhelmed by the intensity that each photograph speaks to you.
This first impression gives visitors a vague feeling of being "out of the ordinary," and they move through the five rooms (sections) in order. This experience also creates a sense of wonder.
The first is the "GOD: People Who Have Passed Away" room. Here you will find memorable stars whose achievements are still engraved in the hearts of many people, such as John Lennon, Yukio Mishima, Shintaro Katsu, Reiko Ohara, and Hibari Misora. You will be soothed by the calm figures of Kin-san and Gin-san and Hibari Misora, the transparent portrait of Masako Natsume, and the smile of national movie star Kiyoshi Atsumi's "Tora-san," and you will be in awe of the radical portrait of Yukio Mishima dressed as the martyr Saint Sebastian. The dim lighting amplifies the aura that only a big star can have.
Opening the black curtains, the second room you arrive at has the theme of "STAR: Famous People Known to All." A total of 49 "STAR" groups are displayed in two corners separated by an aisle. The lighting in this room is clear. From the dim "GOD" room, you will feel as if you have suddenly returned to the real world.
The "STAR-1" room, where small panels (though still large enough!) line the four walls, is packed with about 40 years of Japanese entertainment history, from photos of Oh Sadaharu, Tamura Masakazu, and Funaki Kazuo in 1973 to Kusabue Mitsuko in 2016. There are also photos that give a sense of the changing of the "eras," such as Takeshi Kitano standing in front of Kodansha, the scene of the 1986 Friday attack, as if in a sequel. You'll never get bored looking at them.
Across the corridor, in the "STAR-2" room, visitors are greeted by seven even larger panels of Ebizo in his Ichikawa Shinnosuke days, Daisuke Miura and Riki Takeuchi, Sayuri Yoshinaga, AKB48, Yu Aoi, and Mitsu Dan. Among them, the photo of Momoe Yamaguchi at the height of her popularity, lying on a boat on the lakeside, evokes strong memories.
Among Kishin Shinoyama's portrait collections, the next room, "SPECTACLE: A dream world that takes us to another dimension," is the one that makes us feel the power of "extraordinary" the most. Among them, the most eye-catching are the 9m wide "Shinorama" (a portmanteau of "Shinoyama" and "panorama," a unique technique of Kishin Shinoyama that projects a fantastical world in a wide space by connecting multiple large-format cameras and shooting simultaneously, or by changing the direction of one camera and shooting at a time difference). All of the works in this room are fantastical, such as a fairy tale world with many Kumiko Gotos, and the inside of Tokyo Disneyland, where Shinoyama himself became the character "Shinoraman" and infiltrated the park to shoot the theme of "holidays" where Mickey, Minnie and their friends gather. The kabuki actors lined up at the same time also created a different space that made it seem as if we had traveled back in time to the world of actor paintings from the Edo period.
