Sensing Nature: Yoshioka Tokujin, Shinoda Taro, Kuribayashi Takashi – Mori Art Museum

Kuribayashi Takashi – Sumpf Land 2008
Mixed Media 349×569×415cm Production Image: Towada Art Center, 2008
Photo: Nakajima Kazumi

Yoshioka Tokujin – Snow 2010 (1997~)

Sensing Nature: Yoshioka Tokujin, Shinoda Taro, Kuribayashi Takashi – Mori Art Museum The Mori Art Museum presents ‘Sensing Nature: Yoshioka Tokujin, Shinoda Taro, Kuribayashi Takashi’ from July 24th to November 7th, 2010. Proposing a reconsideration of the Japanese sense of nature, the exhibition fits into the Mori Art Museum’s theme for 2010, which is ‘redefining Japan.’]]>

Source: Mori Art Museum
Japanese culture and art has always been in a close relationshipwith nature. In Japan, the word “shizen” was selected at theend of the 19th century as the most appropriate translationof the English word “Nature.” Originally, words such as“shinrabansho” and “tenchibanbutsu” had slightly widerconnotations, referring to “all of creation,” including humanbeings. Incorporating not only the secrets of the universe,natural phenomenon and the changing of the seasons, butalso human experiences and perceptions of these things, the Japanese concept of nature became merged with ananimistic sense of religion to give rise to a unique form of culture and art. Looking back at Japanese culture from thepast – from its traditional performance, architecture and painting, to its postwar movements, such as Mono-ha – itis possible to recognize countless insights not only into the relationship between the natural and human worlds, butalso into the abstraction of nature and ideas of designing space with an awareness of creation as a whole.

In this exhibition, we examine examples of Japanese contemporary art and design in order to explore thesensibility and collective cultural memory of the Japanese people in regard to nature. Three of Japan’s mostinteresting creators each make one large-scale installation, taking full advantage of the Mori Art Museum’s sixmeterhigh ceilings and large galleries. The three creators are renowned designer/artist Yoshioka Tokujin andartists Shinoda Taro and Kuribayashi Takashi. The work of each incorporates reminders of natural phenomena andthe nature-human relationship. Their approaches, which generally speaking are to reduce nature to an abstraction,resemble the traditional Japanese idea that nature should be felt, rather than rationalized. Viewers experiencethese large installations with their entire bodies in a way that awakens in them the traditional, direct sensoryapproach to nature. Thus, with this exhibition we hope to provide an opportunity to reconsider the way that theJapanese “sense nature.” This in turn will provide hints to the question of what is unique about the Japanese andEast Asian approaches to art, and will also constitute another step towards our goal of “redefining Japan.”

Yoshioka Tokujin
Born 1967. Yoshioka established the Yoshioka Tokujin Design Office after working under Kuramata Shiro and then MiyakeIssey. Many of his works are in the permanent collections of major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York,which has his paper chair, “Honey-pop,” and “ToFU,” the lighting fixture in which he designed light itself. In 2007, Yoshioka wasnamed “Designer of the Year” at Design Miami. He has also appeared in television broadcaster NHK’s “Purofeshonaru: Shigotono Ryugi” (The professional’s way of working) and he was selected by the Japanese edition of Newsweek as one of the “100most respected Japanese around the world.”

Shinoda Taro
Born 1964 in Tokyo. Resides in Tokyo. Shinoda is known for stunning hand-made mechanical sculptures and installations.Incorporating everything from everyday landscapes to the universe itself, Shinoda’s works exhibit his interest in the themes of“gardens” and “a new relationship between humans and nature.” Shinoda has held solo exhibitions at REDCAT (Los Angeles),Hiroshima City Museum for Contemporary Art and elsewhere. He has also participated in numerous international exhibitions,including the Busan Biennale (2006) and Istanbul Biennale (2007).

Kuribayashi Takashi
Born 1968 in Nagasaki. Kuribayashi graduated from Musashino Art University in 1993 and Kunstakademie Dusseldorf (Germany)in 2002. He has held solo exhibitions at various locations including the Kolnisches Stadt Museum, Cologne in 2003, and theHermes Gallery, Orchard Road, Singapore in 2006. He has also participated in several international exhibitions including “ArtsTowada” (Towada Art Center, Aomori Prefecture – permanent collection), “Thermocline of Art – New Asian Waves” (ZKM| Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany), “NEW NATURE” (The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, NewZealand) and “Gardens” (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi Prefecture).