A+ Works of Art Presents
Daido Moriyama
Mapping City
Widely known as the master of street photography,
the act of seeing and photography itself. How could
the works of Daido Moriyama’s work are one of the
photographs grasp aspects of the world that elude
defining Japanese photography aesthetic rising out
consciousness and language? It was this critical
of the 1960s. With the Post-war Japan as the backdrop
engagement with the materiality of photography that
and at the forefront of an avant-garde photographic
led him to describe his works as “something lurking
practice (including compatriots such as Shomei
that cannot be defined... like fragments”.
Tomatsu, Kikuji Kawada and Eikoh Hosoe) Moriyama acknowledged the impossibility of visual representation
Presented in A+ Works of Art, Kuala Lumpur,
in staking totalising claims over reality or memory.
Mapping City focus on city that is entrenched in Moriyama’s explorations. Strongly influenced
Moriyama’s characteristic aesthetic are-bure-boke
by American photographer William Klein and
(rough, blurred, out of focus) eschewed the trend
novelist Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957),
of straight, journalistic photography dominant
Moriyama’s eyes roamed freely over the mysterious
from the 1960s to 1970s. Even as the nation was
and desirous offerings of Tokyo, like a stray dog
struggling to rebuild itself from the ravages of the
scavenging for food. Some of these gritty and
atomic bomb, he was never engrossed in documenting
jarring photographs were lyrically arranged and
objective reality. Instead, he fervently interrogated
published as Hunter (1972), which Moriyama
once described as resembling “a kind of road
& Shadow evoke beauty in the ordinary, and creating
map of images from all over Japan through
an alter form in photographic form.
a moving car window”. Entering into the city, across the streets, down the alleys, the dense
Photography is the life of Moriyama. In an interview,
heavy grain and saturated blacks, these radical,
he shared the darkest moment in his life was two-
larger than life photographs established Moriyama’s
years of absence from photography in the late 1970s.
signature style.
Since then, photography accompanies him daily from Tokyo to New York, and various cities around
The constant explorations of the city that seemingly
the world. In recent years, he started to revisit his
elude his ever-searching eyes become a record,
immediate surroundings that include Ikebukuro
an existence, and a presence that validate itself.
district in Tokyo, and his favourite haunt – Shinjuku.
In Moriyama’s words, “For me, photographs are
Observing the city with a fresh pair of eyes, Moriyama’s
taken in the eye before you’ve even thought about
images draw the audience into his endless stream of
what they mean. That’s the reality I’m interested
consciousness, a copy of the world, and ultimately
in capturing,” In Light and Shadow (1982) Moriyama
a reality that only made sense in photography.
took on a more subdued and introspective outlook on his immediate surrounding. Akin to homage to light that gives form and illumination, Light
Gwen Lee July 2017
DAIDO MORIYAMA
Born 1938 in Ikeda-shi, Osaka, Daido Moriyama is one of Japan’s leading figures in photography. Initially trained as a designer, Moriyama switched over to photography after working as an assistant for Takeji Iwamiya and Eikoh Hosoe, eventually becoming a freelance photographer in 1964. For series such as “Japan: A Photo Theater”, which appeared in Camera Mainichi in 1967, he received the New Artist Award from the Japan Photo-Critics Association. In recent years, large-scale exhibitions of Moriyama’s work have been held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1999; traveling to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Japan Society, New York), the National Museum of Art, Osaka (2011), and London’s Tate Modern (double exhibition with William Klein 2012-13). In 2012, Moriyama received the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography (New York), which cemented his international reputation. His recent photo books include Shinjuku (2002, winner of the Mainichi Art Award 2003), Monochrome and Color (both 2012), and Dog and Mesh Tights (2015).
A+ Works of Art
E XH I B ITION DATES
9 th
August –––
9 th
September 2017
d6 - G- 8, d6 Trade Centre, 801 Jalan Sentul 51000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
GALLERY OPENING HOURS
C O N TA C T
Tuesday to Saturday : 12:00 pm ––– 7:00 pm
info@aplusart.asia
Closed on Sunday, Monday and Public Holidays
+6 018 333 3399 www.aplusart.asia
A+ Works of Art is a contemporary art gallery based
and collaboration. Likewise, curators, writers,
in Kuala Lumpur. Founded in 2017, A+ Works of
collectors and galleries are welcome to initiate
Art strives to engage contemporary practices and
conversations about potential collaborations.
discussions in new media art, especially photography,
The main name, A+, refers then not just to the
video, installation and performance art. While the
gallery’s strive for distinction and professionalism
main geographic scope of the gallery is Malaysia and
in its services and working processes, but also
the rest of Southeast Asia, it keeps its ears attuned
a sense of readiness to start a dialogue with any
to global conversations on social issues, critical
interested party.
imagination and material experimentation. Founded by Joshua Lim, who has decades of Collaboration is the key ethos A+ Works of Art, based
experience in the hospitality industry, A+ Works of Art
in the belief that wonderful things can happen
represents a natural progression for the avid art
when people share and exchange ideas. Artists
lover. Lim has been an art supporter for the past
working with gallery are not so much represented
decade through his ongoing art acquisition and his
by the gallery but engaged in an ongoing conversation
promotion of contemporary art in his network.
A CKNO W L E D G E M E N T S
A+ Works of Art would like to thank Daido Moriyama Foundation Sohey Moriyama
Chang Fee Ming
Dato Victor Yeoh Gwen Lee
S U P P O RT E D B Y
S t u dio M M CM M