Lunn “Pop Up” Galerie presents the new exhibition of Takeshi Shikama’s Contemplation.
Roaming the forests of Japan, the United States of America and Europe over the last twelve years, Takeshi Shikama also trained his lens on sparser landscapes or urban spaces where nature coexists with stone. His gaze seeks the same balance between shadow and light, forges the same relationship between subject and frame and elaborates his ‘visual haikus’ with the same grace he instills in his sylvan compositions.
Between 2011 and 2013, Takeshi Shikama developed his vision outside the forest, producing numerous images in Europe, including two major series in Spain (Galicia) and Scotland (Isle of Skye).
The series on Galicia posesses a strength and generosity reminiscent of the treatment the photographer reserved for the island of Hokkaido. The density of the vegetation in this coastal region and the diversity of natural sites : wooded valleys, wild fields, virgin beaches, rocky shores, evoke the artist’s native Japan, and both inspired and staggered his eye.
During an artist’s residence on the Isle of Skye, in Scotland, Takeshi Shikama became interested in the stone circles and the standing stones : “Ancient Stones”. To capture the details of these rocks which rise up amid wind-beaten plains, like forests of granite or craggy fingers reaching skyward, and the omnipresent stormy clouds, the photographer deployed his full technical expertise. Shooting conditions were difficult and, to produce the prints he meant to show at the end of his stay, he had to use sunlight to expose his first negatives.
While preserving a continuity with his first opus “Silent Respiration of Forests” and furthering the work begun in his “Evanescence : Landscape” series, Takeshi Shikama’s new photographs constitute an altenate body of work which he calls “Contemplation” and which encompasses images he took in France (Fontainebleau, Normandy), the Netherlands and Italy.
Also presented for the first time are prints from the series “Garden of Memory : Animals and Plants” which the artist created between 2008 and 2014. Conceived like a contemporary Noah’s Ark, this series of portraits of stuffed animals in dioramas and greenhouse plants is both a visual testament and a bittersweet assesment that future generations’ memories of our earthly flora and fauna will resume itself to those specimens conserved in museums, like the Natural History Museum in New York.
The platinum/palladium print
Takeshi Shikama places as much importance in the details of recording an image as in the production of the final object : the print. He hand-prints his own work, using the platinum/palladium technique. He personally applies the emulsion on each sheet, times the exposure, reveals the image, fixes it, and dries the print. This long meticulous process requires the attention and patience of an artisan who bears a profound respect for his subject and professes a genuine passion for his work.
A platinum print possesses a wider range of greys. It reproduces more details than a gelatin silver print from the same negative, providing minutia and depth to the image. This technique, prized by artists of the Photo Secession, modern masters such as Paul Strand or Josef Sudek, and revived by Irving Penn in the 1980s, produces sturdier prints : the surface cannot be broken, the image does not fade in sunlight,they are timeless works of art.
Since 2010, the artist prints on a traditional paper, handmade from a japanese tree, the ‘gampi’. The delicacy of gampi gives each print a unique artisanal and precious quality. Its specific tonality softens the black platinum without diminishing the details specific to each subject.
In 2013, Amanasalto, specialists in oversize platinum/palladium printing, selected 12 images by Takeshi Shikama to produce a small limited edition of 5. They were printed by Motoyuki Kubo and his team, in the specially conceived darkroom at Amanasalto, in Tokyo, Japan, under the artist’s supervision.
Takeshi Shikama’s work has been acquired by many private collectors and is represented in several permanent collections, including those of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (Paris, France), Hermes International (Paris, France), the Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego (California, United States), Museet for Fotokunst Brandts (Odense, Denmark), The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Texas, United States), Santa Barbara Museum of Fine Art (California, United States), Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University (Conneticut, United States), Portland Art Museum (Oregon, United States), Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts (Kiyosato, Japan) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, (California, United States).
EXHIBITION
Takeshi Shikama
Contemplation & Garden of Memory
Through April 28th, 2015
LUNN “POP” UP GALERIE
12, rue Léonce Reynaud
75116 Paris
