22 October – 20 November, 2021
Opening Reception：22 October, 2021 | 5 PM

Each Modern is pleased to announce “New Horizon” by two under-the-spotlight Japanese contemporary artists Sohei Nishino and Hiraku Suzuki. With their creative methods of massive photo collaging and subconscious drawing, the artists present not only their challenges to the material but their exploration between and beyond the horizon of geography and astronomy.

During the "Great Geographical Discovery" of the 15th to 17th centuries, human began to actively expand the new world, which also led to the numerous making of the world map. However, these maps inevitably carried imperialism and colonialism from Europe, trying to look at these new landforms and sea areas with a huge and high attitude. When the world's geographic overview gradually took shape, photography emerged in the 18th century to provide these explorers with another way-to enter the mainland, go deep into the native tribes, take pictures of local residents and publish the photos in newspapers and magazines in their hometowns. This is the beginning of the universal understanding of the "world" by us, even though this "world" is incorrect like the Mercator projection map used since the 15th century. In the modern era of tourism, all landscapes have become very small pieces of private memories, stored in computers or mobile phones.

Sohei Nishino’s work can be seen as a mixture of both situations. He often uses a large number of photos to collage to form magnificent natural landscapes and urban panoramic views, such as the Everest work "Mountain Line ‘Everest’", which uses three or four hundred rolls of negatives to shoot and recombine, or rebuild Tokyo, London, Jerusalem, "Diorama Map" series of urban geography such as Amsterdam. For the artist, the image fragments collected during the journey are not complete. Through repeated shootings and collages, he integrates his own memories of the city so that the images are no longer just pure records. The perspectives and shapes presented in "Diorama Map" can be traced back to ancient Japanese hand-painted maps; the colors and narrative method of "Mountain Line ‘Everest’" are reminiscent of mountain climbing pictures in Ukiyo-e; and all break the photographic vision The beauty of perspective echoes the scattered perspective of oriental landscape paintings and the corresponding cosmology.

While we are still trying to comprehend the scenes on the Earth, there is an unreadable language already exists around us. It might come from the ancient time; it might come from the dark universe. In the beginning of 2021, oldest cave drawing was discovered on the Sulawesi Island, Indonesia: the animals and the hands drawn about 44,000 years ago. On the other side of the images, we will find the Voyager Golden Records launched in 1977 and the space signal detected in 2020. Between the ancient totems and the unknown signal, we restlessly juxtapose them and eager to find brand new information out of them.

Suzuki’s drawing is the tube connecting both ends. The signs in his work are like lingual characters, embodying the messags from the ancient civilization and the outer space. His early series “bacteria sign”first arranges and buries dead leaves in the dyed earth. Later, Suzuki excavates only the midribs which compose multiple tiny Nazca Lines. His well-known drawing series “Constellation” present the artist’s silver strokes on the canvas with earth. These signs are now shown in an archeological appearance, indicating their timeproof existence. The radio waves fulfill the dark universe in the new series “Photon Flux” also express a status of to be received. The horizon in Suzuki’s work is more about a mixture of the surface and the deeper universe.

Through photography and drawing, Nishino and Suzuki expand their vision from micro to and elevate the horizon to the Karman line. Although we can now observe the most distant known galaxy GN-z11, we are just to begin to look down at the oceans, the continents, the history, and the species; and look up at the stars, the infinity and the further uncharted universe.

About the Artists

Sohei Nishino(b. 1982, Hyogo, Japan) currently lives and works in Shizuoka. His was exhibited at important institutions such as San Francisco Museum of Modern Art(solo exhibition “New Work: Sohei Nishino”); MAST Foundation, Bologna; 21_21Design Sight, Tokyo; Daegu Photo Biennale, Daegu. Nishino’s work is also collected by Louis Vuitton Foundation; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tokyo Photographic Art Museum and other institutions.

Hiraku Suzuki(b. 1978, Miyagi, Japan) currently lives and works in Tokyo. He was one of the participated artists of the 2019 annual exhibition of Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and he was exhibited by many renowned museums on in Japan. His work can be found in the collections of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Agnes b. Collection; JINS Inc.; Nissan Art Collection and other institutions. Suzuki also works with Comme des Garçons and Agnés b. and he presented he solo show “The Writing of Meteors” at Each Modern in 2018.

Sponsor | National Culture and Arts Foundation