TOKYO.- The Tokyo Photographic Art Museum will present Takano Ryudai: kasubaba Living through the ordinary.

Since receiving the 31st Kimura Ihei Award in 2006 for his photo collection IN MY ROOM, Takano Ryudai (b. 1963) has presented numerous works through books and exhibitions, earning critical acclaim internationally as well as in Japan. In parallel with his explorations on the theme of sexuality, most prominently I IN MY ROOM, Takano has also undertaken a series of ordinary snapshots known variously as his daily photos or kasubaba. Since the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, he has also been interrogating the roots of photography, using shadows as his subject. This exhibition follows the trajectory of Takano’s career from early years up to the present, including works on public display for the first time.

The kasubaba of the title is a term coined by Takano. In 1998 he set himself the task of taking at least one photo every day, and he continues to point his camera at scenes encountered in daily life. From among these photos Takano presented a number taken in urban spaces as the kasubaba series. In kasubaba Takano accepts the quotidian settings of our everyday existence as indispensable elements of our lives, and commits to actively scrutinizing them, offering the viewer everyday unadorned scenes as raw, candid images.

Takano believes that turning our gaze to the ordinary and taking an interest in the little things outside ourselves, may be one approach to adopt for living through this world. Carefully studying the everyday, where everything is by no means beautiful, affirms the present in which we ourselves live, and confirms this moment of life. Hopefully this exhibition will offer some hints for making day-to-day life better as we live through an “extraordinary-adjacent ordinary” marked by major natural disasters, the spread of unforeseen infections, and rapidly changing social conditions.

Organisers

Curated by Endo Miyuki (Curator, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)
Organized by Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)