Noguchi Rika, “Hand and Rainbow”, 2010, C-print, 46 x 69 cm © Noguchi Rika / Courtesy of Taka Ishii Gallery

Thursday 10 October 2024
6:00pm – 7:00pm

Noguchi Rika in conversation with
Jonathan Watkins

Drinks reception: 7:00pm – 8:00pm

13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle (entrance facing Regent's Park), London NW1 4QP

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

Fully booked

In this event, Noguchi Rika was in conversation with Jonathan Watkins, curator of her exhibition Life on Planet Earth, putting the work shown into the context of her practice overall. In particular, they discussed the representation of alienness, a theme that has been evident in Noguchi’s work since she emerged as an artist in the 1990s. She encourages us to see the visible world as if for the first time – with a sense of wonder – while conveying a kind of melancholy derived from an understanding that human perception is strictly limited. In this vein, recent photographs and films of insects and birds exemplify a proposition that is as aesthetic as it is philosophical.

About the contributors

Noguchi Rika

Born in 1971 in Saitama, Japan. Currently lives and works in Okinawa. Noguchi graduated from the Department of Photography, College of Art at Nihon University in 1994. She began producing photographic works while a student at university. Noguchi is celebrated both in Japan and abroad for her richly poetic photographs characterized by a luminous colour palette, unique perspectives that chart a course between the microscopic and the macrocosmic, and choices of subjects that evoke primal human mysteries. Her work transcends the field of photography and has been shown in many international contemporary art exhibitions. In recent years, she has exhibited video work, drawings and sculpture, further expanding her artistic practice.

Major solo exhibitions include a feeling of something happening, Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, 2001; I Dreamed of Flying, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2004; Somebodies: Noguchi Rika, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2004; Small Miracles, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, 2022-2023. Major group exhibitions include Sharjah Biennial 8, Still Life: Art, Ecology and The Politics of Change, Sharjah Art Museum/Expo Centre Sharjah, Sharjah, 2007; 55th Carnegie International: Life on Mars, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2008-2009; YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE 2011: OUR MAGIC HOUR―How Much of the World Can We Know?―, The Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, 2011; The 21st Biennale of Sydney: SUPERPOSITION: Art of Equilibrium and Engagement, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018; Manif d’art 9 – La biennale de Québec, Quebec, 2019.

Official Website: https://noguchirika.com/

Jonathan Watkins (moderator)

Jonathan Watkins is an independent curator and writer and was previously Director of the Ikon Gallery (1999-2022). Previously he worked for a number of years in London, as Curator of the Serpentine Gallery (1995-1997) and Director of Chisenhale Gallery (1990-1995). He has curated a number of large international exhibitions including the Biennale of Sydney (1998), Facts of Life: Contemporary Japanese Art (Hayward Gallery, London 2001), Quotidiana (Castello di Rivoli, Turin 1999), Tate Triennial (2003), Shanghai Biennale (2006), Sharjah Biennial (2007), Negotiations (Today Art Museum, Beijing 2010) and the Guangzhou Triennial (2012). He was on the curatorial team for Europarte (Venice Biennale, 1997), Milano Europa 2000, (Palazzo di Triennale, Milan 2000), and Riwaq (Palestinian Biennial 2007). He curated the Iraqi Pavilion for the Venice Biennale in 2013 and Floating World, Bahrain in 2017. In 2019 Watkins was the curator of Small Between the Stars, Large Against the Sky, the 9th Manif d’art Quebec City Biennial.