Model Cities

The Canadian Centre for Architecture, in Montreal, is presenting a new exhibition of original commissioned works by Japanese artist Naoya Hatakeyama. The exhibition is part of the Tangent series, conceived by visiting curator Hubertus von Amelunxen, which seeks to bring contemporary artists into dialogue with the CCA’s rich Photographs Collection.

Presented in the Octagonal Gallery, the exhibition comprises three series of architectural models that challenge notions of scale and perceptions of reality. New York/Window on the World consists of nine chromogenic colour prints of an architectural model of New York from a theme park in Shenzhen, China. New York/Tobu World Square consists of 12 gelatin silver prints of New York, from an architectural model in Kinugawa, Japan, showing the streets and skyscrapers of the city. And Tokyo/Mori Building consists of five gelatin silver prints of a complex scale model of Tokyo built by the developers of the Mori Building; the prints form a panorama of aerial views conveying the city’s vastness.

The exhibition also includes five photographs selected by Hatakeyama from the CCA collection. These 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.

Naoya Hatakeyama: Scales runs from Sept. 27 to Feb. 3.