Murmuration

Murmuration

A Photoworks Commission for Brighton Photo Biennial 2010

Rinko Kawauchi

2 - 14 October 2010

Flocking starlings at Brighton beach draw parallels with swarming crowds in Kawauchi's first UK commission.

Acclaimed Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi (b 1972, Shiga, Japan) has been drawn to the spectacle of flocking starlings at Brighton Pier. Here during the winter months at dusk, the birds gather in their tens of thousands, wheeling around to create a mesmerizing swirling cloud called a murmuration. Kawauchi is fascinated by the ephemeral nature of this phenomenon and, continuing with the theme of the flock, she has also trailed groups of people through the city.

This Photoworks commission, Kawauchi’s first in the UK, was shown during the Biennial’s keynote exhibition at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, alongside work by Alec Soth, also commissioned by Photoworks and work by Stephen Gill, commissioned by The Archive of Modern Conflict. The project is accompanied by a limited edition Photoworks publication, a limited edition print and also featured as a folio in the Autumn Winter 2010 issue of Photoworks.

Renowned for photographs that capture the beauty of the everyday, Rinko Kawauchi’s work often infers cycles of existence, and the temporal themes of birth, life and death. She gained international acclaim in 2001 with the simultaneous release of three photography books Utatane, Hanabi and Hanako.

Murmuration was commissioned by Photoworks for the Brighton Photo Biennial 2010: New Documents 2010, curated by Martin Parr. Exhibited as part of the exhibition Strange and Familiar: three views of Brighton at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.

Rinko Kawauchi’s commission, her first in the UK, is supported by funding from The Japan Foundation, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and The Daiwa Anglo–Japanese Foundation.