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Seen:  Theater of Love 愛の劇場

Who: Nobuyoshi Araki

Where: Case Space Tokyo, Shibuya

When: September 30 (Sat) - November 12 (Mon) 2017

Theater of Love is a collection of very early work by a young Nobuyoshi Araki in the mid 1960s.  Stored in a Fuji photo paper box with the title written across the top, these pictures were rediscovered in Araki’s archives in 2010 and exhibited for the first time at Taka Ishii gallery in Tokyo. A small photobook of the series was published at the same time.  The inaugural Case Space Tokyo exhibition of these vintage prints presents them sharply framed in a grid. There is a spirit of naturalism in the way the fixer stains and individual discoloration of the prints shine through.   The newest version of the Theater of Love book is a re-creation of handling the prints themselves.  Taking a cue from the work-as-artifact consideration, the replica of Araki’s original photo paper box is astonishingly accurate, as is the faithfulness to the original tones in the plates in it themselves.  

The book and aspects of its production are on display in the gallery as well- the printer proofs and unfinished elements offer insight into the creation of the publication.  It was an honor to have been able to update the translation of Araki’s text for this.