"(...)From a technical perspective, the nature of the work is undeniably photographic. But in terms of how they are perceived and understood, these are pictures that would be more readily ascribed to a painterly or conceptual sphere. This transgression of medium is characteristic of Sugimoto’s approach, and also applies to „Seascapes”, the largest distinct corpus of works in his oeuvre. For over thirty years Sugimoto has depicted the sea, always in the same, archetypal way. These works deal with difference within the apparently identical, with morphological visualization, and an iconic vision of a timeless state of consciousness. „Dioramas”, „Theaters”, „Chambers of Horrors”, „Portraits”, „Architecture”, „Conceptual Forms”, etc. are without doubt very important groups of work, but „Seascapes” composes the broad and consistent foundation upon which all of the artist’s other series are based.
The point of departure for the fifteen works entitled „Revolution” is a nocturnal seascape. A 90° clockwise rotation turns the horizons into vertical lines, dissipating the Romantic image of the night. Without changing the pictures’ material substance or subject, any obvious connotations are masked, their certainties denied by the transformation. At the same time, highly original abstract configurations emerge in their place. But it is finally the presence of the aesthetic which Sugimoto so forcefully brings to light in his new work. The process derives from conventional puzzles, but reveals in this case no new narrative moments, leading instead to hermetic compositions reminiscent of the work of American painters such as Barnett Newman.(...)"
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