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Haines Gallery

September 2 - October 24, 2010

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49 Geary Street Fifth Floor San Francisco, CA 94108
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Trees Tokihiro Sato, Hakkoda #9, 2009 Gelatin-silver print 42-1/8 x 52-7/8 inches
Please join us for the reception on Thursday, September 9, 2010, 5:30PM – 7:30PM Tokihiro Sato’s third solo exhibition at Haines Gallery features photographs made during a two year period from 2008 to 2009 in the Shirakami-Sanchi and Hakkoda mountains in northern Honshu, Japan. Fascinated by the sculptural features of the Japanese Beech tree, Sato’s black and white photographs honor the stoic beauty of this natural form, which, for him, suggests the ancient continental origins of the Japanese people: “It’s form is like the muscles and bones of the male body yet it’s curve is like that of a woman.” Originally a sculptor, Sato turned to photography in the late 1980’s to further explore notions of light and space. His topographic photographs articulate metaphysical, sculptural, and performative ideas, often referencing conceptual and land art of the 1970’s. In Trees, the artist continues to employ a unique photographic technique he terms “photo respiration”, a reference to the meditative quality of repetitive choreographed gestures he enacts in front of the camera. Using an 8 x 10-inch camera fitted with a darkening filter, Sato makes lengthy exposures lasting from one to three hours, during which time he moves throughout the described landscape. When shooting in daylight, he flashes a mirror at the sun, reflecting its light into the camera lens. For nocturnal or interior views he “draws” with a small flashlight. The resulting photographs depict exquisitely detailed scenes punctuated by tiny pinpoints of light that track Sato’s movement but not his physical form. Tokihiro Sato was born in 1957 in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, in northern Honshu, Japan. He earned degrees in Sculpture from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he is now a professor. His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Art Institute of Chicago; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Cleveland Museum of Art; and The Hara Museum of Art, Tokyo. Over the past decade, he has held solo exhibitions at such institutions as the Cleveland Museum of Art and The Art Institute of Chicago. Presence or Absence: The Photographs of Tokihiro Sato is on view at the Frist Center for Visual Arts in Nashville, Tenn. through September 12, 2010.