Contemporary Art Gallery

Tsuzuki Kyoichi's Revolving Roadside Japan

October 17 (Sat.),1998,to November 29 (Sun.),1998

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©Kyoichi Tsuzuki 1998　Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito

The exhibition -- "Revolving Roadside Japan" -- takes its name from the way the items are presented: on a revolving conveyor belt used in some sushi shops. Exhibited are original prints selected from tens of thousands of photographs taken by Kyoichi Tsuzuki in preparation for 238 installments of the serial "ROADSIDE JAPAN," which appeared in the weekly photo magazine, "SPA!" over a five-year period that began in February 1993 and ended in summer 1998. On display are more than 180 photographs, including some appearing in Tsuzuki's book, "ROADSIDE JAPAN" (honored with the Ihei Kimura Award in 1998), which covers 155 of the installments of his serialized column through August 1996. Other pictures are also displayed that did not appear in the book. One can say that Tsuzuki's exhibition at ATM is a special selection of the photographs of the many spots introduced in "ROADSIDE JAPAN."

Tsuzuki says about his photographs, "Here you find neither the beautiful scenes typical of Japan nor the simple and elegant kind of spaces that leave foreigners speechless. Rather I have included only those spots that would incur such epithets as "gaudy" and "frivolous," and that would even be slighted by people living in the neighborhood. But present-day Japan has precisely this kind of unpainted, messy face. It is not beautiful, but has its own charms depending on how you look at it."

As his statement suggests, "present-day Japan" is unfolded in three types of photographs -- large, medium and small in size -- that pass along on the conveyor belt. You are welcome to take any photograph in your hand and look at it to the full, and you can buy any that you like at surprisingly low prices, "taking out" as many as you like. (In the conveyor-belt sushi business, the word "nukitori" used for this, meaning literally "removing" or "taking out.") We recommend that you purchase and take the photographs home, so you can enjoy them in a more relaxed manner in a room like that shown in "TOKYO STYLE," Tsuzuki's book published in 1993. Another room displays framed images from "ROADSIDE JAPAN."

Tsuzuki has written, "The problem is where we Japanese find our reality -- Japan the ugly, Japan the elegant, or Japan the comfortable. If we accepted our immediate reality more positively, we would have a far more delightful life." Tsuzuki sends us intense messages through his photographs on this occasion. He will also deliver a lecture on the first day of the exhibition, October 17.