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Art in Japan>Architecture & Design>Hideaki Uchiyama: Japan Underground II Original articles on art, artists, architecture, exhibitions, galleries, museums and cultural institutions around Tokyo, Japan. Hideaki Uchiyama: Japan Underground IIby John McGee  Hideaki Uchiyama, Super-Kamioka
observation tank, Cosmic Ray Laboratory, If you balk at basement-level Tengu or avoid the deep-as-jigoku (hell) Oedo line, Hideaki Uchiyama's photos are not for you. Over the past 12 years, Uchiyama (b. 1949) and his camera have spelunked the honeycombed bowels of Japan. His vibrantly colored x-rays of the national interior reveal what you might expect, e.g. sewage pipes, but also what you might not, e.g. the stacks of the Diet library and a 73-meter-high monument to unborn children. Like Jules Verne's explorers in "Journey to the Center of the Earth," Uchiyama also finds layers of history. "The past and future come together underground," he says. Uchiyama has discovered tunnels to a 6th-century tomb and a Kamakura-period mine. He has photographed WWII-era poison gas storerooms and forgotten gun batteries punched into the earth's surface. Farther down he has seen shield machines—giant mechanical worms—burrowing a new highway, a curved wall of golden globes tuned in to cosmic rays, and an oil reserve buried 550m deep in bedrock. This exhibition celebrates the release of Uchiyama's book "Japan Underground II," a follow-up to his 1999 sell-out "Japan Underground," with 49 color photos taken from the 61 locations he has visited over the past three years. The prints, ranging up to a wall-size 1.5mx2m, are phenomenally crisp and saturated. Technically they are not photographs but inkjet prints. Epson showcases its latest technology at epSITE, and the power of Uchiyama's photos shows the printer giant has much to boast about. 
Hideaki Uchiyama, Kanna River Power Claustrophobic shots of low-ceilinged tunnels leading into darkened ruins and overhead views of a religious sect's geometric burial chamber match the stereotype of the underworld as a land of shadows, stillness and dread. Countering this are waterways, natural gas lines and subways—the smooth industrial esophagi of a hardworking, modern infrastructure of flow. Like a contemporary Piranesi, Uchiyama portrays the artificial caverns as soaring concrete cathedrals and polychromatic Romantic grottoes. But, according to the artist, the underground is generally not beautiful. "These places are not built to be seen," he says. To capture what he calls the "wonderland" quality of the spaces, he uses filters to balance colors and boost the intensity of often weak available light, or he adds his own light when necessary. Sumptuous colors, exotic locations—too bad you can't visit. Uchiyama spent months dealing with the public agencies and corporations that own the sites before gaining access. Given the current global security levels, especially after the Aum attacks and 9/11, it's unbelievable he was able to enter any. "The government is a little worried about my photos now," Uchiyama admits. Uchiyama's other photo books look at subjects like the city, performance artists and AIDS patients, but the photographer says he has found his niche. "When I went underground the first time, I realized that this was my world," he says. So what's it like down there? "You can't imagine it," says Uchiyama. "Underground is spiritual." Though a corporate Virgil guides him and waits while he spends 2-3 hours shooting, he often feels totally alone. "It is usually really quiet…you lose track of time and forget everything," he says. Perhaps some of that is due to the air. "It's thin and has particular smells, of oil, chemicals, and so on…when you come back to the surface, the air tastes really good." _______________________________________This exhibition was held July-Aug 2003 at epSITE Gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. "Japan Underground II" is available from Aspect Publishing (www.aspect.co.jp). ©2007 John McGee |
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