Takuma

Nakahira
CIRCULATION // ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
By Ruslana Lichtzier
 [ THE SEEN ]

When I first entered Circulation, a solo exhibition of place. And indeed, it was. This exhibition is a their mental urban landscape is vital, filthy, dark,
by the deceased Japanese artist Takuma Nakahira result of a nearly five-year reconstruction process and sexy. In these photographs, Takuma
at the Art Institute of Chicago, my senses of Nakahira’s 1971 photo-performance, led by the Nakahira—one of the leading Japanese figures in
heightened. Something in the space felt off. The Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator of the fields of photography and cultural criticism—
aesthetics of the exhibit did not align with typical the Photography Department at the museum, utilized the “Are-Bure-Boke” style (which
museum standards. Small-scale black and white Matthew S. Witkovsky. The original project, translates to rough, blurred, out-of-focus), which
analog photographic prints were arranged on a entitled Circulation: Date, Place, Events, took became his generation’s visual trademark,
long, dark blue movable wall, the floor below it, place during the seventh Paris Biennial. During importing the approach from Tokyo to the streets
and a cinderblock desk. The prints were curling, the exhibition, which lasted for just less than one of Paris.1 The images operate within an acute state
an implication of their premature drying process. week, Nakahira took pictures by day, printed of exhaustion. Responding to the rapid and
They were attached to the different surfaces with them by night, and hung them in the gallery space unceasing demand of capitalism, they are
glue, meaning they were in a process of the next morning. After filling up the walls, the maniacal and insomniac. ——————————
destruction. The entire installation, which was content began to spill to the floor. The current ——————————— On the last day of the
comprised of two hundred and fifty-three prints, exhibition presents what would have been the last exhibition, Nakahira tore down and destroyed
was installed in a loosely organized, yet crowded day of the show: October 18, 1971. The most of the photographs. While it could be said
grid. Four handwritten 8.5 x 11 inch signs photographs depict the streets, people, movement, that he performed this demolition due to a conflict
indicated the date, the place, and the event of each objects, language, television image, and posters that aroused between the artist and the exhibition
group of pictures. In the center of the constructed the photographer encountered throughout the day. organizers, the act carries a deeper meaning
wall, a poster depicts the exhibition title, an ——————————————————— within the context of his artistic career.2 ————
illustration and a short description of the process —— Using a wide lens camera, and grainy black —————————————————
that led to presentation of the work. ————— and white film, the photographs are often blurry, Criticizing the art world of that time for being a
———————————————— This their horizon lines are tilted. Embracing multiple self-serving system that operates within, and
chaotic, untied, and yet modest installation felt out vantage points, the images are fast and hungry, feeds off the market it proclaims to oppose,

[ TAKUMA NAK AHIR A | 15 ]

 [ 18 | THE SEEN ]

Nakahira initially refused to participate in the a sense of urgency that defined the Tokyo-based original mechanism of the exhibition, redirecting
Biennial. After some convincing, he agreed to group that produced the magazine Provoke. its energy to at once construct and deconstruct
participate, but refused to be positioned as the Provoke, of which Nakahira was one of its institutional circulations. This description is
provider of art goods. He arrived without objects founders, operated for only nine months, but accompanied by a more standard wall text that
to present. The exhibition was designed through became a highly influential force, both provides the project’s historical context. The final
the extension of the artist’s physical and mental stylistically and critically within Japanese cultural lines read: “This full reconstruction of
limits. The process—taking pictures by day, discourse. Now, it is the center of the exhibition Circulation, the first ever attempted, took several
developing them by night, hanging and re- Provoke: Photography in Japan between Protest years to research and six months to print. It can be
organizing them each morning—presented the and Performance, 1960–1975, also featured at the understood as part archeology, part reenactment.
repeated reconstruction of self-consciousness that Art Institute of Chicago in the lower galleries.6 Just as in 1971, it will be destroyed at the end of
escaped prescribed subjectivity.3 The work’s While this concurrent exhibition is of a truly the exhibition.” Lastly, a portfolio file holds an
finalization as (an almost) complete destruction exciting historical wealth, it cannot be viewed “illustrated diary,” which portrays the material
can be understood as Nakahira active refusal to through same lens as Circulation, and therefore construction of the show, placed on the
the Capitalist ideology, which vehicles artists’ will not be discussed. Not only is Nakahira’s cinderblock desk.8 The portfolio, divided into

“The process—taking pictures by

day, developing them by night,
hanging and re-organizing them
each morning—presented the
repeated reconstruction of self-
consciousness that escaped
prescribed subjectivity.”
authorship and subjectivity for pure profit.4 exhibition presented in a different wing of the seven parts, constructs a full picture of the very
——————————————————— museum—to the point that a visitor can go real, human, and international labor that went into
—— Uniting content with form, Nakahira through one exhibit, and avoid or miss the other— the production of the show. Most interesting is the
attained the goals he put on the image together moreover, it features vastly different curatorial reading through sections “Research,” “Making
with his fellow Provoke group member few years intentions. ——————————————— Plans,” and “Printing,” which traces the laborious
earlier: “The image in itself is not an idea. It —————— Firstly, the exhibition resurrects and tedious work of the printer (and recent
cannot attain the totality of a concept, nor can it 1970s aesthetics and installation decisions, whose Columbia College Chicago graduate) Brittany
be a commutative sign like a word. Its irreversible looseness, economy, and vitality are rarely seen in Kumpfer, who was put to task in order to
materiality—a reality that has been detached by today’s museums. Second, it features a wall text reconstruct the exact original conditions for the
the camera—exists in a world opposite that of that outlines (in a highly technical manner) the reproduction of the prints. The archival material
language, and because of this it sometimes reprinting and rearranging process that went into includes not only Kumpfer’s email
provokes the world of language and concepts…We this exhibition.7 This wall text hints on the correspondence with the Senior Conservator of
as photographers must capture with our own eyes curatorial intention to expose a self-reflective Photographs at the Art Institute, Sylvie
fragments of reality that can no longer be grasped circulation; not a circulation of encounters, dates, Pénichon—which discusses alternative photo
through existing language, and must actively put places, and events, but one of museum matter. processes, paper types, chemicals, and labor
forth materials that address language and ideas.”5 The matter here is both archival and performative. contracts—but also scans of notes, handwritten
——————————————————— The project was excavated not only to re-perform schedules, diary entries, and two drafts of her
—— This exhibition presents, or rather reenacts, Nakahira’s original piece, but also to activate the final work-report. The latter is presented in the
 [ TAKUMA NAK AHIR A | 19 ]

review-mode of a Microsoft Word document, with comments from a 1 This material quality was probably achieved with a mediated out of focus or the
intentional move of the camera at the release of the shutter.
supervisor, perhaps the Senior Curator. I find the reading interesting
because to most people, I imagine, it is quite boring. The overwhelmingly 2 Later on, in 1973, Nakahira intentionally burned down most of his negatives and
technical discussions are at risk of approaching total obscurity to the prints, in a material and symbolic gesture that aimed to free him from the past.
This may indicate that destruction for Nakahira had an equal creative drive to creation.
general reader. ————————————————————— These
elements reveal the exhibition’s deeper intentions—performing photography 3 In his essay, entitled “Self-Change In The Act of Shooting,” Nakahira writes, “…
when I encounter afresh the world of reality, my own self-consciousness is
as an act of archeology, and reenactment itself. In place of discussing the
dismantled; the act of rebuilding the consciousness has been imposed on me
historic analysis of the original project, it presents its own circulation. I endlessly. That, in a way, has been my fate as a photographer.” Vartanian, Ivan,
question the symbolic value of this action in a museum today: the gesture Akihiro Hatanaka, and Yutaka Kanbayashi. 2006. Setting Sun: Writings by Japanese
Photographers. New York: Aperture, p. 86.
towards a historical production, and a subsequent destruction. I specifically
wonder regarding the reenactment of these energies, and their unavoidable 4 Fifteen original prints escaped the destruction, and are presented framed on the
gallery walls.
collision with the archeological urge that fetishizes the reconstruction of the
original. And yet, Nakahira found, perhaps not fully, a way out; a path that 5 Provoke 1, November 1968: Trans. Christopher Stephens, From Postwar to
allowed him to oppose to Capitalism. Since I cannot imagine any of these Postmodernism: Art in Japan 1945 – 1989, Ed. Doryun Chong, Michio Hayashi,
Fumihiko Sumitomo, Kenji Kajiya, p. 214, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2012
original energies surviving a second at the Art Institute of Chicago, I
wonder what we are looking at. A ghost? A tomb? An unfulfilled horizon? 6 The exhibition is accompanied by a wonderful 680 pages long catalogue, that
carries the same title.

— 7 Here are some excerpts of the text: “574 images made up Circulation on
October 18, 1971 on its final day. 253 images were reprinted at original size from
Takuma Nakahira, Circulation, at the Art Institute of Chicago ran corresponding negatives…most new prints were cropped, “dodged,” or burned…74
from January 28–April 30, 2017. images appear on installation views at sufficient size to permit full-size printing
with an enlargement of 28 percent or less…”

IMAGES: 8 The portfolio file is placed next to the book Takuma Nakahira, Circulation:
Installation view of Takuma Nakahira: Circulation. Photography courtesy of the Art Date, Place, Events, and the Summer 2015 Issue of Aperture magazine, which
Institute of Chicago focused on Tokyo. The three objects create a reading / research desk.