Sohei Nishino, Everest & Journey of Drifting Ice
11 MARCH – 25 APRIL 2020, Michael Hoppen Gallery, London
www.michaelhoppengallery.com
Sohei Nishino has most recently travelled to Mount Everest, and to the sea which runs between northern Japan and eastern Russia, some of the world’s most challenging environments. Fascinated by the historical significance and symbolism of Everest, Nishino shot almost 400 rolls of film from Lucla to Gokyo Peak. His photo-collage technique pieces together thousands of images taken during his travels to construct dioramas of complex geographies which integrate human and physical landscapes.
His map of Everest illustrates an intense engagement with this harsh geography, and the ways that it shapes the lives of local populations.
To create Journey of Drifting Ice, Nishino started out from the extreme north-eastern tip of Japan, in Hokkaidō’s Shiretoko peninsular. Fascinated by the drift ice, which expands across Shiretoko’s seas, he began to research the science behind these colossal formations, and the remarkable journey ice floes travel from Russia’s great Amur River through to the Sea of Okhotsk before arriving in Japanese waters.
In the light of the environmental crisis, Nishino’s mapping of these disappearing geographical features is charged with additional urgency; the landscape of these long unchartered waters is changing rapidly, and Nishino’s photography takes stock of both the ice floe’s evolving position and the integral necessity of its ecosystems to the diverse communities which rely upon them.
Sohei Nishino was born in Hyogo, Japan in 1982. He graduated from Osaka University of the Arts in 2004, when he began working on his Diorama Map series. Since then he has exhibited his work internationally and gleaned numerous awards including 'President Award', Osaka University of Arts (2004), 'Young Eye Japanese Photographer Association Award' (2005), 'Canon New Cosmos Photography Award' (2005), the 'Canon Excellence Award' (2005) and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2016). He has also participated in several group shows, festivals and solo exhibitions: Daegu Photo Biennale, Korea (2010); Out of Focus exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London (2012); Contemporary Japanese Photography vol.10, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (2012); A Different Kind of Order: ICP Triennial, New York (2013).
Images captions: 1. Portrait of Sohei Nishino in his studio, Photo: Kentaro Kumon 2.©Sohei Nishino, A Journey of Drifting Ice, Magadan, 2019, Courtesy of the artist Sohei Nishino and Michael Hoppen Gallery.