Noritoshi Hirakawa talks about his works preceded by a screening of Lawrence Weiner’s Water in Milk Exists.The mostly sexually charged image Hirakawa produces through his diverse practice awaken an awareness of how human perception can be redefined to extend beyond culturally imposed limitations and foster activities that push these boundaries. Sexuality and eroticism are deployed by Noritoshi Hirakawa in his work as subversions of established cultural limits that neutralize irrational forces, such as desire, fantasy and lust, in human behavior. Considering human interation, in its broadest sense, Hirakawa humanizes spaces and structures where these repressive mores operate by eroticizing them with imagery evoking individual fantasies, In his photographs, women are often portrayed in intimate situations within public spaces. In these works, for example, hints of larger narratives that operate on the threshold where private and public converge into projected images or censorship, emerge. These then expose the limits of presumptions ranging from exclusively interpreting the male gaze as an objectifying one or appeasing any such concerns with the notion of willing collaborators.

Born 1960 in Japan, Residing in New York City since 1993, Hirakawa’s work has been exhibited at the major museums, art centers, and galleries all over the world. Additionally he has worked on several collaborations with artists in other fields, such as poets, musicians, choreographers and architects.

• 4pm Film screening : Water in Milk Exists, directed by Lawrence Weiner and produced by Noritoshi Hirakawa. (R19)
• 4:30pm Artist Talk : Noritoshi Hirakawa talks about his works