Born: 1971, Saitama, Japan
Lives and Works: Berlin

Noguchi Rika creates photographs of our planet that seem suspended in states of tranquil immersion. She often seeks out locations that speak of the limits of human knowledge and ambition. For her series New Land (1999-2000), for example, the artist documented the construction of artificial islands off the coast of the Netherlands; the group of photographs known as Rocket Hill (begun in 2001) record the facilities and launch pad of Japan's Tanegashima Space Center and its island setting. Although some of her photographs have featured human beings as their principal subjects, human figures are usually remote, incidental, or entirely absent from her "fieldwork." The series The Sun (begun in 2005) on view here is an earth-based exploration of a celestial body—our nearest and most familiar star—resulting from something that is beyond usual or sensible experience. The bursting coronas and incandescent flare-ups recorded in these images are the result of shooting directly into the sun using the most primitive type of lens-less device for capturing images—a pinhole camera.

Links: Noguchi Rika in the Guggenheim Collection; Noguchi Rika web site