As evidenced by Nobuyoshi Araki’s latest exhibition, it appears that losing vision in his right eye three years ago has not impaired the artist from sustaining his ferociously prolific output. Curated by Hisako Motoo, “Imatou” gathers approximately four to five hundred of the photographer’s most recent Polaroids under the same roof in a constantly changing assortment. On display here are works using both Polaroid and Impossible brand film, all arranged in long rows. Some of Araki’s most recent instant photographs are handpainted, and collectively they make up a kaleidoscope of the artist’s signature photographic motifs: floral still lifes in vibrant, painterly colors, poignant snapshots of westerly skies at dawn, and series of nudes. This most recent series, “KaoRi”, 2015, features Araki’s muse in various stages of disrobing her kimono and were shot on site at AM gallery.
Though Araki is renowned for his shunga-inspired bondage nudes known as kinbaku, he is, first and foremost, a tireless point-and-shoot diarist. Not unlike Nan Goldin’s, Araki’s oeuvre is intertwined with his private life to an indistinguishable degree, as epitomized by his 1991 autobiographical series “Winter Journey,” an unflinching account of his wife Yoko’s battle with terminal cancer.
If instant film as a medium is inherent to Araki’s diaristic projects, it may be because the artist descries a propensity for intimacy in its intrinsically illicit nature: An instant photograph circumvents the prying eyes of technicians in the darkroom, often ending up as a fetishized object to be carried around in one’s wallet or secretly stashed away in a drawer. As the boundary between the personal and the public realm perpetually fluctuates in the digital age, this exhibition sets itself apart by imprinting Araki’s most private records indelibly on the vanishing analog format.
