Finding an old building in Tokyo is harder than you think. Fast-paced and ever-evolving, Tokyo structures over 30 years old are considered outdated and replaceable. The Japanese’s relationship with their architectural legacy piqued the interest of Inês d’Orey, a Portugese photographer whose artistic work explores the reinterpretation and transformation of interior urban spaces.
Her series Do Not Sit Down is an ode to the old Tokyo buildings from the 1930s to ’70s which have miraculously been overlooked for demolition. Inspired by Junichiro Tanizaki’s essay In Praise of Shadows (1993), d’Orey set out to document these elusive structures that have been converted into museums or various spaces that are still in use. Reduced to the shadows of their former glory, they are eerily suspended in time, meditative in their emptiness. Closer scrutiny reveals passages from Tanizaki’s essay, added post-production. Lightly covering the each photograph, the words and walls become one, like ghosts that can’t let go.
Do Not Sit Down is on exhibit at the Galeria Presença until 12 January 2019. Visit d’Orey’s website and Instagram to discover more of her work.
1929
Transplanted House, from Senjo-motomachi, restored in 1993
1934
Nakano-Ku By Iwao Yamawaki
Saint Anselm’s Meguro Catholic Church
1954
By Antonin Raymond
By architects and engineers from the Architectural Section of Tokyo Municipal Government
1925
By Sutemi Horiguchi
Transplanted House, from Nishikata, restored in 1998.
1938 Setagaya
1969
By Togo Murano
1964
By Kenzo Tange
1952
Transplanted House, from Nishi-azabu, restored in 1996.
Images © Inês d’Orey / with permission