By ASPEN ABNER
Damien Drew’s Shikoku no Seijaku (or Shikoku Silence) exhibition invitations viewers to view the drastic results of Japan’s declining inhabitants and youthful generations’ migration to bigger cities by his evocative imagery of Shikoku, Japan’s least populous landmass.
The serene, but haunting, landscapes show abandoned, elementary faculties and empty highways that stay largely deserted and unused.
Drew’s acclaimed pictures captures the once-vibrant communities and the gradual disappearance of human contact. The choices unveil moments of magnificence in surprising places and re-frame the loss and decay as a chance for reflection.
Damien Drew expresses that his objective for Shikoku no Seijaku is to “seize the melancholic magnificence that continues to be within the wake of the area’s pronounced social change”.
This can be a continuation of his exploration of the Japanese philosophy ‘wabi-sabi’, which Drew says “celebrates the transient magnificence discovered within the impermanence of all issues.
“Despite the fact that my photographs might depict the decline of those communities partially, I view my work as each a celebration and memorialisation of what stays.”
Damien Drew is an award-winning artwork director, educated architect and acclaimed photographer. He has obtained recognition from the Urbanautica Institute of Visible Anthropology and ranked “Australasia’s High Rising Photographers” in 2022 by Seize Journal for his Shikoku sequence.
By way of these gorgeous items, the photographer has really illuminated rural Japanese ‘ghost cities’, providing a visible journey and broader reflection on these distant places.
Shikoku no Seijaku (Shikoku Silence) will probably be on show from July seventeenth to August eleventh on the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf.
The opening for the general public will probably be from 6 to eight pm on Wednesday, July seventeenth. Admission is free.
Extra info could be discovered at https://www.woollahragallery.com.au/
The deal with is: 548 New South Head Street, Double Bay NSW 2028