JTF (just the facts): A paired show featuring the works of two Japanese photographers (Ken Kitano and Tomoko Sawada), variously framed and matted, and displayed against blue and grey walls in the two room gallery space. The 6 works by Kitano are all gelatin silver prints made between 2004 and 2014. Physical sizes are either roughly 13×10 or 69×55; the larger prints are unique while the smaller ones are available in editions of 7. The 5 works by Sawada are all sets of chromogenic prints, made between 2006 and 2011. One work consists of two sets of 56 prints (only one set is on display), a second is made up of 36 individual prints, and the other three are each aggregations of 100 prints on one mount. Individual component images range in size from roughly 2×2 to 11×9, with edition sizes either 3+1AP or 10+3AP. (Installation shots below, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery.)
Comments/Context: This show of contemporary work from two Japanese photographers new to the Pace/MacGill stable is a smartly conceived investigation of identity built up from alternate, or better yet opposing, lines of artistic thinking. From Ken Kitano, we see single portraits made from multiple faces, where many coalesce into one, and from Tomoko Sawada, we see multiple portraits made from a single face, where one expands into many. See together, they push and pull on the notion of individuality, discovering similarity and difference in the same place.
Ken Kitano’s ghostly shifting portraits follow in what has become a long line of artists exploring layered composite imagery, starting with Nancy Burson and working forward to contemporary photographers like Idris Khan, Jason Salavon, and Corinne Vionnet. But Kitano’s images aren’t digital manipulations; instead they are methodically and repetitively additive, each face laid down on top of a growing pile, becoming an aggregate of multiple superimposed exposures on the same sheet. Individual Muslim women in burkas, Tiananmen Square soldiers, Hong Kong “Umbrella Revolution” protestors, and Hiroshima mourners merge together into a single common representative, where identity becomes shared and universal (like an essence) rather than separate and discrete.
Tomoko Sawada’s works pack more conceptual punch, exploding individuality into seemingly infinite diversity and variety. In This is Who I Am, she makes 36 headshot self portraits (each wearing the same blue turtleneck), using combinations of hairstyles, makeup, glasses, earrings, and other accessories to transform her outward appearance, creating a rigorous taxonomy of potential personalities out of her single face. While Cindy Sherman has made a ground breaking career out of using herself as a model, Sawada’s examinations of put on roles and self feel much more personal, where physical attributes become symbols of alternate/potential personas all found in one body. Three typologies of self portraits capture the uniquely Japanese ritual of job recruitment, where seekers don uniform suits (shown here in black, navy, and grey) and mute their individuality to fit into the rigid corporate world. Sawada makes 100 versions of herself in each suit color, using variations of hair and deadpan expression to explore individuality inside these societal boundaries. A final work applies this same kind of unexpected diversity to the famous Heinz ketchup bottle, translating its text (its “face”) into 56 different languages, turning something that we expect to be the same into something surprisingly individual.
Like the in and out of breathing, this show seems to converge and diverge in alternating rhythms, replacing the single with the multiple and back again. The crispness of Sawada’s exponential execution trumps Kitano’s more ethereal archetypes, but the thoughtful pairing gives each an added layer of contrasting resonance.
Collector’s POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. Kitano’s large prints are $24000 each, while his small prints are $2500 each. The Kawada double grid of 56 images each is $130000, the 36 image set is $19000, and the smaller 100 image collections are $6500 each. Neither Kitano nor Kawada has much secondary market history at this point, although Kawada’s works are starting to pop up at auction intermittently. Given the lack of consistent price history for both, gallery retail likely remains the best option for those collectors interested in following up.
