RIKA NOGUCHI

Light Reaching the Future

Ever-ambitious even in her mid-career, Berlin-based Rika Noguchi has chosen light as her subject. One of Japan’s contemporary photography masters, she moves seamlessly between small and large universes, between the microscopic and the macroscopic. This exhibition catalog from the Izu Photo Museum highlights two decades of work, including several previously unpublished and un-exhibited works.

With its full-color reproductions and installation photos, this publication provides the best opportunity yet to understand the depth of this mid-career artist (born in 1971). Increasingly recognized worldwide, her work is included in such important collections as the Guggenheim in New York and MOCA in Los Angeles.

While words like “poetic” and “ambiguous” frequently occur in writings about Noguchi’s work, she is by no means a traditionally Japanese photo-based artist. By allowing light refraction to re-define form, her images can range widely from an explosion of color to a small detail (for instance, the shadow of a person on a far horizon). The cover image, which depicts the monochromatic shadow of a hand broken by a bright refracted rainbow, is typical of the startling contrasts that can result.

Produced with the high quality characteristic of Japanese publications, this dust-jacketed, semi-hardcover monograph provides an extensive cross-section of her work. The catalog shows her most recent works as well as her breakthrough series, Record of Creation. The new silkscreen prints are juxtaposed with photographic prints; the contrast between the two media offers an analysis on the very essence of photography.

Art critic Yuri Mitsuda adds an insightful essay about the photographer’s explorations over the years. As American interest in contemporary Japanese photography grows, Rika Noguchi remains an artist to watch.

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