Hiroshi Sugimoto Screen Time

Installation view of Noh Such Thing As Time, a performance of Yashima daiji, Oct 3, 2001 at Dia, stage, warōsoku lighting, and photo backdrops by Hiroshi Sugimoto, image via sugimotohiroshi.com Tickets for Naohiko Umewaka’s performance at Dia 25 years ago today of Zeami’s classic 14th century Noh drama, Yashima, with lighting, stage, and set by Hiroshi Sugimoto, went on sale September 12, 2001. I was not in the mood then, and the punny title, Noh Such Thing As Time, didn’t help. Also something about the two monumental, multipanel photos of pine trees did not sit right with me then or since. I did not like the book. So despite my absolute transfiguration by his 1995 Time Exposed (Buddha Series), it took me a while to accommodate Sugimoto’s explorations of traditional Japanese art and culture into my understanding of his practice. Hiroshi Sugimoto, Pine Trees, 2001, six-panel silver gelatin prints, I think, via sugimotohiroshi But I’ve been thinking about Sugimoto’s large-scale works,…