when: 15 March 2025 - 27 April 2025 | venue: 4A - Centre for Contemporary Asian Art | cost: Free | address: 181-187 Hay Street, Haymarket NSW 2000 | website: https://4a.com.au/exhibitions/sly-morikawa-what-was-what-will-be | tickets: https://4a.com.au/exhibitions/sly-morikawa-what-was-what-will-be
published: 23 Mar 2025, 5 min read
4A presents What was, what will be, the debut institutional solo exhibition of Sydney-based Japanese Australian photographer Sly Morikawa.
Working across Japan and Australia, Morikawa's diverse subjects range from intimate friends to loose acquaintances, centuries old Japanese structures and vivid scenes of subcultural life. Her bodies of work straddle established hierarchies of taste and class, honouring her subject matter without prejudice through the impartial lens of her camera.
Presenting new and existing works, this survey exhibition demonstrates the breadth of Sly Morikawa's sophisticated explorations of society's underground: the taboo, outcast or forgotten. With a lithe sensitivity, Morikawa's recognisable works balance ideas of desire, power and agency and evoke an effortless dreamlike quality in which personal and social biases are suspended for a brief moment, allowing viewers to process the often uncomfortable realities of everyday life.
4Aでは、シドニー在住の日系オーストラリア人写真家 森川スライによる、当ギャラリー初の個 展「What was, what will be (過ぎしもの、来たるもの)」を開催する。
日本とオーストラリアで 活動する森川の被写体は、親密な友人から浅い知人、何世紀も前から残る日本の要素、そして 鮮やかなサブカルチャーの風景まで多岐にわたる。彼女の作品は、美的感覚や階級といった既 存のヒエラルキーを超え、公平なカメラの視点を通して、偏見なく被写体をとらえる。
新作と過去の作品を併せて紹介する本展は、タブー、疎外された者、忘れ去られた存在といっ た社会のアンダーグラウンドに対する森川の洗練された探求の幅広さを示す。森川の特徴的な 作品は、しなやかな感性で欲望、権力、主体性といったテーマの均衡を保ちながら、くつろい だ夢のような感覚を呼び起こす。その瞬間、個人的・社会的な偏見は一時的に取り払われ、鑑 賞者は日常に潜むしばしば直視しがたい現実と向き合うことになる。
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4A presents What was, what will be, the debut institutional solo exhibition of Sydney-based Japanese Australian photographer Sly Morikawa.
Working across Japan and Australia, Morikawa's diverse subjects range from intimate friends to loose acquaintances, centuries old Japanese structures and vivid scenes of subcultural life. Her bodies of work straddle established hierarchies of taste and class, honouring her subject matter without prejudice through the impartial lens of her camera.
Presenting new and existing works, this survey exhibition demonstrates the breadth of Sly Morikawa's sophisticated explorations of society's underground: the taboo, outcast or forgotten. With a lithe sensitivity, Morikawa's recognisable works balance ideas of desire, power and agency and evoke an effortless dreamlike quality in which personal and social biases are suspended for a brief moment, allowing viewers to process the often uncomfortable realities of everyday life.
4Aでは、シドニー在住の日系オーストラリア人写真家 森川スライによる、当ギャラリー初の個 展「What was, what will be (過ぎしもの、来たるもの)」を開催する。
日本とオーストラリアで 活動する森川の被写体は、親密な友人から浅い知人、何世紀も前から残る日本の要素、そして 鮮やかなサブカルチャーの風景まで多岐にわたる。彼女の作品は、美的感覚や階級といった既 存のヒエラルキーを超え、公平なカメラの視点を通して、偏見なく被写体をとらえる。
新作と過去の作品を併せて紹介する本展は、タブー、疎外された者、忘れ去られた存在といっ た社会のアンダーグラウンドに対する森川の洗練された探求の幅広さを示す。森川の特徴的な 作品は、しなやかな感性で欲望、権力、主体性といったテーマの均衡を保ちながら、くつろい だ夢のような感覚を呼び起こす。その瞬間、個人的・社会的な偏見は一時的に取り払われ、鑑 賞者は日常に潜むしばしば直視しがたい現実と向き合うことになる。
Go see Sly Morikawa: What was, what will be 2025.

Sly Morikawa: What was, what will be 2025 is on 15 March 2025 - 27 April 2025. See start and end times below. Conveniently located in Haymarket. Call +61 423 738 283 for details. Visit their website at https://4a.com.au/exhibitions/sly-morikawa-what-was-what-will-be.
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