Spring [ Architecture ]
Some fifteen thousand years ago during the last Ice Age, Cromagnon hominids used mammoth bones to build shelters, a development intimately connected to the use of fire, the idea being not to let any of that hard-won warmth escape. Donning skins also relates to the notion of building enclosures, both means to help maintain body heat. This new ability to regulate a constant body temperature despite external extremes very likely led to changes in metabolism to allow year-round estrus and reproduction, by which the species flourished. Memories of dwelling long, dark nights by firelight inform the photo series In Praise of Shadows (In’ei Raisan) that bear witness to the last flicker of a candle flame. Likewise, a taste of the candlelit pre-modern Japanese night is presented via a reproduction of the ornate Tsujigahana shibori curtain from Daigoji temple said to have served as Generalissimo Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s (1536-1598) battle encampment screen, along with an actual-scale photo installation at the entrance depicting a stupa made of old Tempyo era (729-765) timbers from the three-storey East Pagoda of Taima-dera temple in Nara.

Hiroshi Sugimoto