Overview
We are delighted to present an exhibition of works by the acclaimed German artist and photographer Michael Wolf (1954-2019) from his Tokyo Compression series. Comprising 72 photographs and 8 lithographs, they are extracted from a wider collection of images in the series shot over a four year period at Shimo-Kitazawa station in Tokyo.
Wolf has become known for his documentation of life in hyper-density cities, and Tokyo Compression spotlights the claustrophobic experience of commuting in the Tokyo subway in which millions of commuters make their daily journeys between work and home. Pressed against the windows, caught in the transitory space between home and work, the disquieting images of Wolf’s subjects capture the incommodious life in densely populated urban centres.
Exhibited as a one-line installation, the presentation evokes the formality of passing by trains with its commuters crushed against its windows. Throughout the series, Wolf can be seen engaging with abstraction of his subjects through reframing and cropping with skin pressed against the windows, partially obscured and blurred from view by condensation on the glass or shielded by surgical masks. Feelings of discomfort and anxiety triggered by the overcrowding are omnipresent throughout the series as its subjects yearn for retreat and tranquility through closed eyes and headphones. The shut eyes and hands pressed against the windows to cover the commuters' faces present an act of resistance against the artist’s lens while others meet Wolf’s gaze, creating an intimate connection between the subject and the artist through his viewfinder.
