Photo Gallery International
Closes in 9 days
Collaborative projects between artists of different practices often lead to new ground, for both the artists and the medium alike. The latest to appear in a Tokyo space is "Locus Focus," a collaboration between photographer Itaru Hirama and legendary butoh dancer Min Tanaka, showing at the Photo Gallery International (www.pgi.ac) in Tokyo's Tamachi district till April 25.
In 2006, Tanaka initiated a project called "Ba-odori," which means to "dance a place" — rather than dancing in a place — vowing to take butoh beyond the theater. Recognizing the possibilities of such an idea, Hirama, who is known for his photographs of the Japanese music scene, invited Tanaka to collaborate on a photographic series in his hometown of Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture.
The resulting series features Tanaka performing with ocean-side pines, in a dilapidated hut, or writhing over huge, old tree roots. "Locus Focus" refers to Tanaka's intuitive, real-time reaction to the place, or "locus." Despite the energy and renown of the subject, Hirama's photographs rarely settle for mere documentary. They are elegant, determined compositions; their dark, rich tonal depth are not only Hirama's response to the austere power of butoh but also an effective means to abstract the performer and landscape.
Still, sometimes collaborations can amount to no more than both artists simply meeting half-way. In some of the images, the evident energetic trajectory of the dancer is muted by the crisp shutter speed; in others the focus of tension in the gestures of the dancer is lost against a wide frame of landscape.
Thus the compositions that are close-cropped, blurred, or abstract are the ones that most effectively convey something of the tension of Tanaka's dancing, while retaining the creative presence of Hirama's perspective.
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