An exhibition of black and white prints made in Japan by photographer Jane Brown will be shown at Stills Gallery in Sydney in April.
Photographer Jane Brown’s ‘Black Ships’ exhibition at Stills Gallery in Sydney celebrates the power of black and white prints in her series of images about contemporary Japan. The exhibition, which begins on April 1, has been produced with a meticulous hand-printing process.
The curators say “Brown’s beautiful and ambiguous photographic work appears to originate from a different era, but simultaneously depicts contemporary subject matter.” The title ‘Black Ships’ suggests the idea of a Western perspective on Japan. ‘Black Ships’ was a term used by the Japanese for western vessels approaching their shores. It dates from the 16th century when the hulls of Portuguese vessels were painted black with pitch.
The term became a symbol of the end of Japan’s isolationist policies and the modernisation that followed. The images in Brown’s series carry symbolic meaning. Brown says they “evoke pathways and bridges which reflect the idea of a journey, bandaging and wrapping symbolic of past wounds, walls and fences figurative of boundaries and cultural isolation, nature and decay referencing the Japanese concept of mono no aware (mortality and a pathos for the transience of things).”
A key image features the cherry blossom, symbolic in Japanese culture and celebrated for its ephemeral beauty, whilst also a symbol of nationalism. In World War II kamikaze pilots painted them on the side of their planes, and the souls of dead soldiers were thought to be reincarnated in the petals of the cherry blossom.
‘Black Ships’ is a travelogue that looks to the strange machinations of history, and at the same time is a reflection on contemporary Japan. Seen through a traveller’s eye, it acknowledges the photographers who travelled there in the mid-19th century and it also responds to Japan’s militarism of the 20th century.
Jane Brown has exhibited widely in Australia. Recent exhibitions include Melbourne Nowat the National Gallery of Victoria, The Sievers Project at the CCP, Island of the Colourblind at Breenspace Sydney, CCP Declares: On the Nature of Things at The Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australian Gothic at Edmund Pearce, Melbourne. Brown is a recipient of the Art and Australia/Credit Suisse emerging artist award for 2013 and was a 2012 and 2013 finalist in the Bowness Prize at the Monash Gallery of Art.
Her work has been featured in Art and Australia journal, and The Australian and The Age newspapers. It’s held in major Australian collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria. This is her first exhibition at Stills Gallery.
‘Black Ships’ runs from April 1 until May 2. The gallery is open from Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm, or by appointment. Stills Gallery is located at 36 Gosbell Street, Paddington, NSW. Ph: 02 9331 7775. For more detail see www.stillsgallery.com.au.
Kyoto. Image from 'Black Ships', by Jane Brown.
Hiroshima. Image from 'Black Ships', by Jane Brown.
Image from 'Black Ships' exhibition, by Jane Brown.