MOUNTAIN LINES, EVEREST, 2019
Now on view at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London is Sohei Nishino|New Works featuring a monumental new work by the artist, Mountain Lines, Everest. Drawing inspiration from 18th century Japanese mapmaking, Nishino combines photography, collage, and psychogeography to create large scale experiential prints of urban and natural landscapes. Fascinated by the geographical and historical magnitude of Everest, Nishino took on one of the world’s most challenging environments to create his latest piece.
Nishino uses photographs as geographical representation, but it is with a subjective point of view. His signature photo-collage technique pieces together thousands of images taken over the course of his travels, to construct dioramas of complex geographies which integrate human and physical landscapes. From a distance, Nishino’s maps are almost abstract. It is not until we examine them in detail that the full experience unfolds.
DETAILS OF MOUNTAIN LINES, EVEREST
Nishino brings his cartographic vision to places which have traditionally defied definition on paper. Shooting almost 400 rolls of film during his 23-day climb from Lucla to Gokyo Peak, Nishino tracked the journey from a dense and meticulously planned variety of vantage points. Although geographical accuracy is important in his process, scales have been altered and locations occasionally repeated, mimicking the fluid memories of place and time. The end result is an enlightened vision of Everest’s mythic proportions, rendered from a tangible point of view.
Nishino has described this project as one of the toughest periods of shooting. Unprecedented in its use scale and color, Mountain Lines, Everest stands apart from his other work to date. Two sizes are available: an edition of 5 measuring 263 x 150 cm; and edition of 15 measuring 185 x 105.4 cm. Sohei Nishino|New Works is on view at Michael Hoppen Gallery March 11 – April 25.
