“I love the energy of cities, the diversity, the density.”
—Sohei Nishino
Japanese artist Sohei Nishino’s (b.1982) ongoing monumental series Diorama Maps brings his experience of walking through the city to life. To create the urban tableau of Rio de Janeiro, offered here, Nishino spent weeks walking around and photographing the city from various vantage points. By the end of his visit, he had taken over 10,000 photographs and used over 300 rolls of black-and-white 35mm film. He then spent the next few months in his Tokyo studio, printing the contact sheets in his darkroom, selecting thousands of images, cutting out the individual frames, and then affixing them onto a large board. Once the collage was complete, he re-photographed it to produce the final large-scale work.
From a distance, this meticulous aerial map appears abstract, inviting us to look closer to see such landmarks as the Christ de Redeemer, Sugarloaf Mountain or Copacabana Beach. ‘I just let myself rely on the experience of walking,’ Nishino explains. ‘It’s the accidental, coincidental elements that make it interesting. Then once I am home, I continue the journey of discovery in the darkroom.’ The Tokyo-based artist was the subject of a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2016-17 and his work resides in such prestigious collections as Saatchi Gallery, London; Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris; and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.
