Anne Pöhlmann's Japan Diary exhibition at Clages explores photography, textiles and cultural perception

Anne Pöhlmann presented her exhibition 'Japan Diary' at Clages gallery in Cologne from 19 January to 24 February 2018. The Dresden-born artist created the works during a three-month residency in Kyoto, Japan. Her photographs, printed on both photo paper and textiles, are mounted directly onto fabrics pinned to the walls. This approach counters Western photographic traditions that often misinterpret Japanese culture, as seen in works like 'Entry #03 ferns, Kiyomizu-dera' (2017–18), which depicts ferns at the Buddhist temple Kiyomizu-dera printed on black cotton. Pöhlmann's technique merges image with material, using fabrics as image carriers, frames, and pictorial elements. In 'Entry #01 horsetail', a photograph printed on cotton shows horsetails on a tarpaulin, inserted into a composition of mint turquoise microfibre and worn white velvet. The exhibition challenges the superficial gaze of Western photographers in Japan, drawing parallels between textiles that conceal and photographs that surface cultural misunderstandings. Pöhlmann's work references photographic Japonisme while moving beyond clichés through material experimentation. The show was reviewed in the April 2018 issue of ArtReview, translated from German by Kevin Kennedy.