hiroshi sugimoto at biennale of sydney 2010

the 17th biennale of sydney opened last week under the theme ‘the beauty of distance: songs of survival in a precarious age‘. the show presents more than 440 works by 166 artists and collaborators from 36 countries, including new works created especially for sydney. cockatoo island (a former convict prison and dockyard for shipbuilding) located in the middle of sydney harbour is the main venue.

‘faraday cage’, 2010 by hiroshi sugimoto
image © designboom

japanese artist hiroshi sugimoto created ‘faraday cage’ an installation specially conceived for the power house on cockatoo island containing light boxes from his recent lightning field series. the work is based on sugimoto’s experiments photographically imaging static electricity on large format film. part medium part scientist, sugimoto is both recorder and facilitator of the processwhich evanescent tendrils of forked ‘lightning’ manifest a fundamental natural relationship between light, energy, power and the dawn of life itself. visitors view the glowing images held aloft on a series of stage like platforms. once they ascend through the space they are faced with ‘rajin’ a thirteenth century japanese sculpture – the god of thunder.

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

lightning field series, 2009
image © designboom

lightning field series, 2009

‘raijin’ the god of thunder
image © designboom

‘raijin’ the god of thunder
image © designboom

hiroshi sugimoto
portrait © designboom