Wataru Nishida “Color of Hong Kong”
I visited “Color of Hong Kong”, the first solo exhibition by Wataru Nishida, aka Watarock.
The venue is the Canon Gallery in Ginza. This exhibition is scheduled to travel through three regions, continuing on to Osaka and Nagoya.
The walls were plastered, as if filling every inch, with various everyday scenes of “Hong Kong”, the theme adopted for the show, and colorful hues decorated the venue with lively energy.
It’s easy to have your eyes stolen by the vividness of the colors, but from each individual photograph the photographer’s intent and gaze come through.
“I rendered them in colors so vivid you might wonder whether I’d botched it!?”—so says Watarock himself, and indeed there is a glamour like that of a popular Instagram post.
Perhaps with Instagrammers in mind, there was a clever touch: selfie spots set up in several places within the venue.
Even apart from selfies, many visitors were taking photos on their smartphones in front of the many colorful works.
Photography and posting to social media are both entirely OK. You find yourself torn over which photo to use as your backdrop.
Video Work
Precisely because he is “Watarock“, his bond with music seems strong. At the venue, a video work stringing his photographs together like a movie was also on show. The video was synced to an up-tempo soundtrack, offering a different kind of enjoyment from the still photographs.
At the opening party, Sakito—the guitarist of NIGHTMARE, who served as composer for the video work—was also in attendance.
The video was edited with great tempo, and its sense of synchronization with the music was superb. You could catch glimpses of Watarock’s signature style, and it felt as though even the air of the venue had been colored.
For Sale
Calendars and photo books were on sale at the venue.
The photographs on display can be purchased as well, it seems. It also looks like you can choose from several size options. Once framed, I imagine each work takes on a subtly different character. Pondering which photo to hang and where in your room…? is itself a delightful bit of imagining.
Works to Watch
Enjoying the many works as a single package is one approach, but taking out individual photographs to appreciate them on their own is another.
While works flaunting a neon-sign-like colorfulness dominated the venue, works employing motifs of discontinuity or a soft, mist-enveloped quality revealed a more artistic side that I enjoyed.
From the way he captures his motifs to the way he composes his frames, I found much to appreciate in viewing them.
The way he talks about his work conveyed a straightforward, pure side to him. The worldview Watarock speaks of seems well established, imbued with an unshakable message.
Starting from Tokyo, the show travels on to Osaka and Nagoya.
He is one of those photographers whose growing success I look forward to.
