KIKUJI KAWADA
THE LAST COSMOLOGY (SPECIAL EDITION)
The book
Published by MACK + GOLIGA, 2015
Book Size 24 x 34 cm
Pages 86 + 67 Tritone Plates
Hardcover (slipcase) + Softcover (book)
Language Japanese
Limited Edition 150 (signed and numbered)
+
The photographic print
Print affixed to the slipcase exterior
Image size 11.5 x 18 cm
Astrology, once a scholarly tradition, binds astronomical phenomena to events of the human world. The Last Cosmology reveals Kikuji Kawada's preoccupation with the cosmos, and his fleeting empathy for the abating custom of divination. Inspired by the apocalyptic sky-scapes of the painter Emil Nolde, Kawada photographed abnormal and calamitous weather conditions – gales that configure coiling cloud-patterns, electrical storms, or rain striking glass.
Captured between 1980 and 2000, the work is part of 'The Catastrophe Trilogy', a chronicle which ties together the dramas of the skies with the end of two historical eras on earth: the Showa Era in Japan, ending with the death of the Emperor in 1989, and 20th century's close. Kawada says, “I imagine the era and myself as an implicitly intermingling catastrophe... I want to spy on the depths of a multihued heart that is like a Karman vortex.”
---
Astrology, once a scholarly tradition, links astronomical phenomena to events in the human world. The Last Cosmology reveals Kikuji Kawada’s preoccupation with the cosmos, as well as his fleeting empathy for the vanishing custom of divination. Inspired by painter Emil Nolde’s apocalyptic skyscapes, Kawada photographed abnormal and calamitous weather conditions—wind gusts that configure rolling cloud patterns, electrical storms, or rain that hits glass.
Captured between 1980 and 2000, this work is part of "The Catastrophe Trilogy," a chronicle that links the dramas of heaven to the end of two historical eras on earth: the Showa era in Japan, which ended with the death of the emperor in 1989, and the end of the 20th century. Kawada says, "I imagine the era and myself as an implicitly intertwined catastrophe... I want to spy on the depths of a multi-colored heart that is like a Karman vortex."
© Goliga Books