Enokura Koji
P.W. No. 50, Symptom - Floor, Water

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Artist Enokura Koji(Japanese, 1942–1995)Japanese, 1942–1995

CultureJapanese

Titles

P.W. No. 50, Symptom - Floor, Water

Date1974

Place depictedParis, France

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 7 7/8 × 9 3/4 in. (20 × 24.8 cm)
Sheet: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Frame (outer) (ANW EXHIBITION FRAME): 20 5/8 × 16 5/8 × 1 3/4 in. (52.4 × 42.2 × 4.4 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment

Object number2014.684

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionFrequently associated with the Mono-ha (School of Things) movement, Kōji Enokura exposed the raw materiality of cloth, concrete, paper, and other materials, often in relationship to the artist’s body and to specific spaces. As an extension of his sculptural investigations of spatial relationships, he began using photography in 1972 to convey materiality in the series P.W., an abbreviation of “Photographic Work.” Enokura’s sharp photographs of everyday scenes vividly evoke a sense of the tactile, particularly in his frequent depictions of wet surfaces such as floors and tabletops. He felt that photography revealed his approach to facing things directly, transcending everyday vision, and responding with a corporeal sensitivity. Interested in what he called a “frightening unease” between a body and the space around it, Enokura considered the camera an optical instrument that could intervene between an object and himself.
Provenance[Tokyo Publishing House, Tokyo]; purchased by MFAH, 2014.
Exhibition History“For A New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968-1979 Japan,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 8–July 12, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscribed on sheet verso in pen: 1974, [in Japanese] [Untitled, water]

Inscribed in pencil inside estate stamp on sheet verso: 011-001-108

Unsigned

Stamped with estate stamp on sheet verso: SPACE 23°C / Enokura / 2012

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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