From 27 September 2007 until 3 February 2008, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) presents Naoya Hatakeyama: Scales, a Tangent exhibition featuring works commissioned by the CCA. Japanese artist Naoya Hatakeyama has created three intriguing photographic series of architectural models that challenge notions of scale and the perception of reality. Conceived by Hubertus von Amelunxen, visiting curator of the CCA Photographs Collection, the Tangent exhibition series seeks to bring contemporary artists into dialogue with the CCA’s rich collection.

Presented in the Octagonal Gallery, the exhibition comprises the three series New York/Window of the World, New York/Tobu World Square, and Tokyo/Mori Building. Also on view are five photographs selected by Hatakeyama from the CCA Collection that portray models developed by architects of the modernist period, a crucial time during which the camera became instrumental in capturing and disseminating a new architecture. These works show the strategic use of the camera to influence the perception and understanding of buildings, whether built or conceptual, as well as photography's power to act upon and transform the model.

Inspired by these images, Hatakeyama has photographed existing architectural models of New York City and Tokyo. In a series that recalls a modernist aesthetic, black and white images frame the model as if the photographer was standing on the streets of New York. Another model of the same city is transformed into a series of rhythmic, colourful geometric compositions that borrow from the vocabulary of painting. In the third series Hatakeyama creates large panoramas that simulate aerial views of Tokyo and present the city as an infinite accumulation of buildings and infrastructure. His works shift scales and perspectives, creating the illusion of a real city from its representation or emphasizing the model as a reproduction.

Naoya Hatakeyama: Scales is the fourth and concluding exhibition in the Tangent series, following presentations by British artist Victor Burgin (2006), German artist Dieter Appelt (2005), and Canadian artist Alain Paiement (2003).

Related Program: Artist In Conversation
On the opening day of the exhibition, the CCA hosts a conversation between Naoya Hatakeyama and Hubertus von Amelunxen on the formal and conceptual framework of Naoya Hatakeyama: Scales. The free event is held in the Paul Desmarais Theatre on 27 September at 6 pm.