PRINTING SHOW—TKY Daido Moriyama

PRINTING SHOW is a recreation of Daido Moriyama’s 1974 performance of the same name. Following the format of the original performance as closely as possible, in lieu of prints mounted on the gallery walls, visitors to the gallery will find the photographer stationed at a photocopy machine duplicating his photographic prints. As was done forty years ago, these photocopied sheets will be assembled and staple-bound with a silk-screened cover printed in the gallery space during the performance.

In 1974, the ad hoc photobook that resulted from this process, Another Country—New York, featured images from a trip Moriyama had made to New York in 1971. The photobook, which was produced as ephemera for the performance, has since become a rare collector’s item. In the 2011 recreation, the work featured will include a selection of images made in Tokyo over the last fifteen years.

Visitors to the gallery will be active collaborators in the photobook-making process. In 1974, the photographer sequenced and collated the photocopied sheets, leaving the choice of silkscreen cover to the visitor. In 2011, the visitor will select, edit, and sequence the sheets of the ad hoc photobook, titled TKY. Visitors will choose from a menu of fifty-four double-sided photocopied sheets that will be on view in the gallery space. Visitors will also make a choice of cover. All copies made during the performance interval will be signed by the photographer.

PRINTING SHOW—TKY embodies and addresses fundamental issues impacting the landscape of photobook publishing, as well as the communication of ideas in a post-digital era.