MELBOURNE.- From crowds moving through subways to light gently falling over rice fields, fragments filmed in urban and rural areas of Japan are enmeshed together in Miyanaga Akira’s mesmerising moving image works on display at the National Gallery of Victoria until 30 April 2017.

REALTIME: Miyanaga Akira, the artist’s first Australian exhibition, comprises five recent works, the largest of which, REALTIME-MATERIEL, 2015, is projected as a large-scale immersive display more than five metres long.

Moving poetically between realism and abstraction, Miyanaga’s works continuously layer familiar images until they become distorted and fractured, transforming everyday scenes and environments and imbuing them with new meanings.

‘Miyanaga’s moving images are immersive, beautiful and, above all, contemplative. As the stillness of a grassy meadow is enveloped by the frenetic energy of urban life, we are invited to reflect on our own changing environments, our perception of the world around us and the ebb and flow of time,’ said Simon Maidment, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, NGV.

Miyanaga’s work is known for its skillful and visually sublime use of time-lapse photography and post-production techniques of splicing, rearranging, layering and superimposing images. The artist uses these post-production processes and repetitious layering of images to shift the viewers’ perception of time and to encourage viewers to look at the world from new perspectives.

REALTIME: Miyanaga Akira is on display at NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Australia from 18 November 2016 to 30 April 2017. Entry is FREE.