Hiroshi Sugimoto

1948, Tokyo, Japan
He lives and works in New York and Tokyo

site-specific | permanent artwork

Enlightning

2024
Trinted fabric

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s multidisciplinary practice explores the themes of time, empiricism, and metaphysics. Building on his technical expertise in classical photographic traditions, he investigates the ways in which photography can document the unseen forces of nature.

Enlightning, a fusion of the words Enlightenment and Light(n)ing, embodies the connection between the two renowned series, Lightning Fields and Opticks, both emerging from the study of nature. The artist views the Enlightenment, the European scientific and intellectual movement advocating the belief that a “natural law” underlies all aspects of life, and Kenshō (enlightenment), from Buddhist philosophy, referring to an awakening where one experiences the true nature of the self, as complementary concepts, two sides of the same coin. Examining the world around us to understand the nature of life and looking within ourselves to understand the nature of the self.

The Enlightning ceiling canvas was created especially for Palazzo Diedo.

Courtesy of the artist