Daido Moriyama’s body of work leans so heavily towards black and white photography that to see a gallery filled with his images of Shinjuku in extreme colour is nothing short of startling. The images fill the windowed hall of the Fondation Cartier in Paris, where they have been arranged in small groups like hyper-saturated visual haikus. How a wire fence, a girl’s face and an overturned erotic book relate to each other is not the point; what might be is how Moriyama broadcasts a sense of over-stimulation.
In fact, colour work is not uncharted territory for the Japanese photographer; he toyed around with it in the 1970s and by the early 2000s, with the arrival of the digital camera, he would shoot in colour and convert the images to black and white for exhibitions. This was still the case when the Fondation Cartier invited him to present a solo show in 2003. Last year, general director Hervé Chandès felt the artist would benefit from exposing this unfamiliar facet of his work in a wider way. As he tells Wallpaper*, Moriyama didn’t require much persuading. ‘I simply told him, "We worked together 12 years ago, it’s time to come back."’
The show – entitled 'Daido Tokyo' – consists of two rooms. In the gallery to the left, visitors will notice how the images appear like signboards, affixed in mid-height to concrete-like pillars so it’s impossible to ignore the lower legs of others drifting through the space. Conceived by Alexis Fabry, the staging also evokes city blocks; visitors turn one corner to find a trio of organically themed images, and then turn another and discover a double dose of kink.
Darkly futuristic à la Blade Runner or bleak and desolate, the collection, says Chandès, ‘remind[s] of what we have seen before, while exciting our visual memory’. He adds that Moriyama felt the layout made physical his state of mind. ‘He describes himself as a promeneur,’ he explains, using the French word for someone who strolls, or walks. ‘And a promeneur is someone who goes from surprise to surprise. So, of course, you have this sensation.’
In the opposite hall, a darkened gallery presents a slide show, in which black and white photographs taken over the past two years appear on a 25-minute loop across four screens with random street sounds and voices. Titled Dog and Mesh Tights, the images attest to Moriyama’s obsession with capturing moments spontaneously and without inhibition.
Moriyama’s distinction between black and white versus colour is simultaneously counterintuitive and expected. As he explains in the press materials, ‘The first one is rich in contrast, is harsh and fully reflects my solitary nature. The second one is polite, gentle, as I set myself towards the world.’ The catalogue, meanwhile, unites both realms, throwing them into even sharper relief.
Moriyamo's vibrant excursions through Shinjuku, Japan, capture a diverse range of subjects, including a wire fence, a girl’s face, and an overturned erotic book. Pictured: 'Daido Tokyo', exhibition view.
From Tokyo Color, 2008-15.
From Tokyo Color, 2008-15.
From Tokyo Color, 2008-15
Moriyama's monochrome practice has not been forgotten, thanks to the separate Dog and Mesh Tights gallery, in which black and white photographs taken over the past two years appear on a 25-minute loop across four screens with random street sounds and voices. Pictured: Dog and Mesh Tights, 2014–15.
From Dog and Mesh Tights, 2014–15.
INFORMATION
’Daido Tokyo’ is on view until 5 June. For more information, visit the Fondation Cartier’s website
ADDRESS
The Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain
261 Boulevard Raspail
75014 Paris
-
Audemars Piguet and Kaws have created the Royal Oak Concept watch we didn't know we neededThe Audemars Piguet x Kaws Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon 'Companion' is slick wrist-worn art
-
A friendly rivalry coloured by kinship: Wendy Maruyama and Tom Loeser on their two-artist show'I wanted to make furniture, just not traditional furniture, but weird furniture,' says Wendy Maruyama on ‘Colorama’, a two-artist show presented at design gallery Superhouse (until 11 January 2025)
-
Tranquil and secluded, Lemaire’s new Tokyo flagship exudes a sense of homeIn Tokyo’s Ebisu neighbourhood, Lemaire’s tranquil new store sees the French brand take over a former 1960s home. Co-artistic directors Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran tell Wallpaper* more
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekInvesting in quality knitwear, scouting a very special pair of earrings and dining with strangers are just some of the things keeping the Wallpaper* team occupied this week
-
Tom Wesselmann’s enduring influence on pop art goes under the spotlight in Paris‘Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann &...’ is on view at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris until 24 February 2025
-
Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales film series comes to life for Art Basel ParisIn ‘Tales & Tellers’, interdisciplinary artist Goshka Macuga brings Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales film series for Art Basel Paris to life for the public programme
-
Art Basel returns to Paris: here is everything to see and doArt Basel Paris 2024 (18 - 20 October 2024) returns, opening at the newly renovated Grand Palais
-
Elmgreen & Dragset explore contemporary masculinity in ParisWe visit Elmgreen & Dragset at their Berlin studio ahead of new exhibition ‘L’Addition’ at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay, a subversive take on the classical form
-
'I’m So Happy You Are Here': discover the work of Japanese women photographersSubtitled ‘Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now’, this new monograph from Aperture is a fascinating insight into a critically overlooked body of work
-
Don’t miss Henri Matisse and Ellsworth Kelly at Fondation Louis VuittonFondation Louis Vuitton present a series of works by Matisse and Kelly, celebrating the influence they had on the trajectory of contemporary art
-
Matthew Barney draws on a sporting horror history with video installation ‘Secondary’Matthew Barney revisits a haunting memory of violence and spectacle in his first institutional show in Paris in over a decade
