Soft light spilled from a lighting sculpture made of countless hanging transparent pieces, its shadows drifting across the floor. Later, in the collection exhibition, I came across Yoshida Hiroshi’s Sailing Boats, my favourite of the day. Before I knew it, it was almost closing time. Once again, it was the best day.
Two Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
At the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), I saw the special exhibition “Tada Minami: Still, shimmering light”, as well as the collection exhibition “MOT Collection: Past Light, Present Sight”. A ticket to the Tada Minami exhibition also gets you into the collection exhibition.
Tada Minami (1924–2014) was an abstract sculptor active in post-war Japan. She brought the industrial materials of her time into her work, leaving pieces all over the city: in parks, stations, hotels, theatres. This is her first large-scale retrospective since her death, with around 70 works, including chandeliers plus other lighting pieces she herself called “Lighting Sculpture”.
The MOT Collection exhibition shows works from the museum’s own collection of about 6,100 pieces, with a new theme each time. This season, the focus is on light, as well as time.
Both exhibitions share “light” as a keyword. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, though…
Tada Minami: Still, shimmering light
I Want to See the Back, Too
First, the special exhibition. Up close, a large rippling metal piece had an amazing surface texture.
Then what caught my eye was where it was attached to the wall. From a different angle, I could see the wires, the brackets, so I couldn’t help peeking. I love being able to see the fixings. Looking at the back of an artwork is my absolute favourite thing (lol)
Reflections, Shadows: All Part of the Work
In the mirror-like metal pieces, the gallery, the ceiling, the lights all appear, warped. The surroundings inevitably show up in them, but I suppose that is part of the work too. Fun.
In the atrium gallery, several mirrored pieces hung from the ceiling, with natural light from the skylights casting huge shadows on the wall. The mirror beneath a transparent piece reflected the whole room. Peering inside the work, light, shadow, reflection all overlapped into a very strange sight.
Strong late-afternoon sun was pouring in through the window, lighting up the surface of a piece. Wow, the sun. That late-afternoon light… It was not just the gallery lighting; it was light I could only see at that time of day.
The Soft Light of the Lighting Sculptures
What made me go “ooh” the most were the lighting pieces.
Countless transparent pieces hang in the air, soft light spilling from them. On the floor, on the walls, the shapes of the pieces fall just as they are, as shadows. The light, the shadows, the shapes: everything was lovely.
MOT Collection: Past Light, Present Sight
From Yoshida Hiroshi’s The Sumidagawa River to Sailing Boats
In the collection exhibition, what stopped me in my tracks were the woodblock prints by Yoshida Hiroshi (1876–1950).
First, three prints from Twelve Scenes of Tokyo: The Sumidagawa River, The Sumidagawa River in the Mist, The Sumidagawa River in the Evening. Same composition, yet just by changing the colours, mist rolls in, evening falls. They are woodblock prints, yet the same block turns into a different time of day. I find that really fascinating.
Beyond them was the Sailing Boats series, my favourite of the day. Using the same woodblocks with different colours, he depicted six times of day: morning, forenoon, afternoon, mist, evening, night.
Same boat, same composition, yet the colour of the sky, the sea, even the air is completely different. Looking at them in order, time moves on from morning to night.
My favourite is Sailing Boats – Night. My favourite season is winter, my favourite time of day is night, so… well, of course (lol)
Yokoo Tadanori, Sugimoto Hiroshi
Yokoo Tadanori’s A Dark Night’s Flashing: From the Red Darkness shows a cemetery lit in red next to a vivid green tree. At first glance: wow.
Honestly, Sugimoto Hiroshi is not really my thing… but I liked his Theaters series. These are monochrome photographs of a glowing white screen floating in the middle of a dark theatre. Partly because the prints are on the small side, it feels like peeking into the theatre from outside. If they were large works, I think it would feel like being inside the theatre.
Summary
At first, I saw them as two separate exhibitions. Looking back, though, what drew me in was the same thing: the same object looking different with the light, with the time of day.
With Tada Minami, it was the reflections, the shadows, the late-afternoon sun. With Yoshida Hiroshi, the same sailing boat from the same block, moving from morning to night. The reasons both exhibitions clicked with me were connected after all.
When I stepped outside, it was already evening. By the time I reached the station, night had begun to fall. I arrived while it was still light, then went home in the dark. Somehow, a day just like Sailing Boats.
The museum was busier than I expected, especially the Tada Minami exhibition. Even after about 2.5 hours, I only just made it before closing, with no time for the café, nor the shop… next time. The galleries in the late-afternoon sun were rather nice, too.
