Seascapes and Hiroshi Sugimoto (Week -3)

During Informing Contexts I experimented with seascapes from my window on the Isle of Skye. First, through my window during a storm and then, blurring the scene through intentional camera movement. My final Work in Progress portfolio included some of these images but I also processed a number of colour versions that I shared in this Critical Research Journal. On the basis of these colour images I have been asked by a local Skye artist, Julia Christie if I would like to join her in exhibiting at Gallery An Talla Dearg on the Isle of Skye from 28 June – 17 July http://eileaniarmain.co.uk/an-talla-dearg-gallery/

Of course, I jumped at the chance especially given the timing in terms of starting my Final Major Project. Having viewed the space I will be hanging my work I have decided to produce my work in a square format that allows me to hang two framed prints on each hanging string. I will need ten framed images and a number of mounted images to offer for sale. These are a few examples of my work not yet in their final form:

During Surfaces and Strategies I researched the work of Hiroshi Sugimoto and particularly his on-going project Seascapes. Here are a few examples of his images:

I like the serenity and stillness that Sugimoto captures in his work and his consistent horizon across the middle of the image works as it gives a balance and better sense of being there.

Sugimoto has exhibited his work across the globe and Here are some photographs of his installations:

In 2005, Sugimoto recalled his first view of an ocean:

“My first view of the ocean came as an awakening,” Sugimoto writes, recalling his earliest and most vivid recollection of the sea, “I spied it from a Tokaido Line train, the seascape passing from left to right. It must have been autumn, because the sky had such vast, eye-opening clarity. We were riding high on a cliff, and the sea flickered far below like frames of a motion picture, only to disappear behind the rocks. The horizon line where the azure sea met the brilliant sky was razor sharp, like a samurai sword’s blade. Captivated by this startling yet oddly familiar scene, I felt I was gazing on a primordial landscape.” (“The Times of My Youth: Images from Memory,” Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2005)

And wrote specifically about his extended work Seascapes as follows:

“Water and air. So very commonplace are these substances, they hardly attract attention―and yet they vouchsafe our very existence. The beginnings of life are shrouded in myth: Let there water and air. Living phenomena spontaneously generated from water and air in the presence of light, though that could just as easily suggest random coincidence as a Deity. Let’s just say that there happened to be a planet with water and air in our solar system, and moreover at precisely the right distance from the sun for the temperatures required to coax forth life. While hardly inconceivable that at least one such planet should exist in the vast reaches of universe, we search in vain for another similar example.  Mystery of mysteries, water and air are right there before us in the sea.  Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home; I embark on a voyage of seeing.” (Hiroshi Sugimoto).

I can relate to Sugimoto’s words in terms of the calming effect of looking out to sea.  I can also understand why he has taken these images over such an extended period of time.  Every time I look out on the water in front of our house on the Isle of Skye the light, water surfaces, clouds above and the land colours are different.  Every view is a different view.