Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness

Singapore Art Museum (SAM) proudly presents Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness, the artist’s first major survey exhibition in Southeast Asia. Bringing together over 60 works across 11 series, the exhibition traces more than five decades of Sugimoto’s practice across diverse media, including photography, video, sculpture, and installation.

The title Form Is Emptiness draws from the Heart Sutra, a foundational Buddhist text. The phrase “form is emptiness” articulates a central insight: that what appears fixed or tangible is contingent, shaped by conditions and perception rather than inherent permanence. This tension between appearance and reality underpins Sugimoto’s practice, which considers how meaning is constructed through ways of seeing.

Designed by Sugimoto, the exhibition unfolds as a mandala, a circular geometric form representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist cosmological traditions. Visitors move through branching and interconnected paths, forming their own experiential sequences.

This exhibition features iconic series, including Dioramas (1975–2025), Portraits (1999), Seascapes (1980–ongoing), Theaters (1976–2014), Five Elements (2011-2012), Opticks (2018–ongoing), Sea of Buddha (1995), In Praise of Shadows (1998) and four unique elements: Sugimoto’s personal fossil collection, a rarely seen three-channel video work—Accelerated Buddha (1997–2017)—a monumental installation—Brush Impression, Heart Sutra (2023)—and the first presentation of Spacescape (2024), which emerged from a collaboration with Sony, the University of Tokyo and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Sugimoto brings together photography, calligraphy and spiritual reflection in the Brush Impression series. Within the darkroom, he “writes” with fixer onto photographic paper in near darkness, guided only by rhythm and memory.

In Accelerated Buddha (1997–2017), his first video work, images of 1,000 Buddha statues appear in an increasingly rapid sequence until they blur into a vibrating field. This acceleration echoes the growth of civilisations across time—which are all born, expand and inevitably decline. A similar concern underpins his celebrated Theaters series (1976–2014), in which long-exposure photographs capture entire films in a single luminous frame. Across the series, Sugimoto draws a parallel between cinema and life, both unfolding over time before reaching finality and disappearance.  

This sustained inquiry finds an enduring expression in the Seascapes series, featuring a body of works photographed across more than 250 locations worldwide. With a horizon where sea and sky meet, these works evoke a shared human experience across time, perception and consciousness. Sugimoto translates this exploration into sculptural form in Five Elements (2011/2012), featuring optical glass pagodas in which miniatures of Seascapes are enshrined.

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness will be on view from May 29 to October 4, 2026. It is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue and will extend to a dynamic range of programmes, including talks, sound performances, film screenings, tours, and participatory experiences.

For more information on the exhibition and the catalogue, please visit here. Media kit/Media queries: Aneesha Shetty (Tate Anzur) and Melanie Heng or Bridget Lee (SAM).