IZIMA KAORU | ONE SUN - Opening & Reception

From left to right: Nanyuki, Kenya, 2007, C-print with acrylic diasec, 47 inch diameter; Nordkapp, Norway #2, 2007, C-print with acrylic diasec, 47 inch diameter

Von Lintel Gallery is pleased to announce One Sun, an exhibition of new work by Japanese photographer Izima Kaoru.

Sept 1—Oct 9, 2010 

Opening Reception Wednesday Sept 8, 6—8 PM

After fifteen years of exploring the macabre in his ongoing series Landscapes with a Corpse, Izima Kaoru looked to spirituality to ease his fear of death. Dissatisfied with what organized religion had to offer, he found his comfort in the natural world. The sun and its constancy in our existence proved to be his solace and inspiration.

Traveling the world, Kaoru tracked the path of the sun from sunrise to sunset on a single day in a given location. Using a fisheye lens and long exposure, he left his shutter open from dawn to dusk, capturing 360 degree views of the sun's progress as it made its way across the sky.

The large-scale photographs in Izima Kaoru's new series are unusual in format. They are cut round and embedded in a circular frame, echoing the celestial orb for which the series One Sun is named. Each photograph features a single illuminated line against a wash of cerulean blue. The line is repeated from one photograph to the next, albeit in various forms, the sun altering its path depending on locale and season. It curves and bends, nearly forming a full circle in Norway at the poles; it is a wide reaching arc in Hawaii, a mere sliver of a crescent during Tokyo's winter solstice. In Kenya, at the equator, a single vertical line of the sun dissects the rounded photograph into halves.

First impression is of bold, graphic imagery, teetering on the edge of abstraction. Yet when one goes in for a closer look, recognizable clues—a volleyball net, cityscape, trees—cling to the edges of most circles, reminding us these are indeed photographs.

Izima Kaoru has exhibited widely in the United States and Europe and is represented in numerous public and private collections internationally. This is his sixth solo exhibition with Von Lintel Gallery. The artist lives and works in Tokyo.