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April Issue 2007
Sumter County Gallery of Art in Sumter, SC, Features Works by Japanese Artists About Nature
The exhibition, Force of Nature, featuring the works of ten artists from Japan opens at the Sumter County Gallery of Art, in Sumter, SC, on Apr. 28 and continues through June 22, 2007.
Force of Nature is the capstone exhibition of an ambitious project which has been in development since 2003 when project curators Mark Sloan, Director of Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, and Brad Thomas, Director of the Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College, went to Japan to identify artists whose works represent a sustained engagement with the human/nature dialectic. Each artist was asked to produce a nature-based installation using locally available natural materials (salt, wood, dirt, plant life) or natural elements and processes (wind, fire, water, decay). Collectively, this exhibition poses the question - are we a part of, or apart from nature?
The first part of this project, now complete,
began in Fall 2006 when the College of Charleston, Davidson College,
UNC-Charlotte School of Architecture, Clemson Architecture Center
in Charleston, Winthrop University, and McColl Center for Visual
Art, served as host institutions for ten Japanese artists who
arrived in September for six-week residencies that resulted in
the creation of nature-based, ephemeral installations that were
on display at the host institutions through early Dec. 2006.
Because the art was located in either the Charleston, SC, or Charlotte,
NC, area, most visitors, were not able to view all of the artworks.
Part two of this project - the exhibition at Sumter County Gallery
of Art - will bring representations of all ten artworks under
one roof, including photographs of each installation at various
stages of creation, artists' models and drawings, and pieces from
the original installations. This will be the only opportunity
for people to see the entire exhibition in one place at one time.
The Sumter County Gallery of Art received a prestigious National
Endowment for the Arts grant to mount this exhibition. The Force
of Nature exhibition is also on the schedule of events for
Piccolo Spoleto 2007. If you are interested in a chartered bus
trip from Charleston to Sumter to see the exhibit during Piccolo
Spoleto, please call 843/953-7891.
One of the artists, Yamamoto Motoi who creates intricate labyrinths with salt, will return to Sumter to create a new site-specific installation at the Sumter Gallery of Art. Motoi adopted salt as his primary medium following the death of his sister at the age of 24. In Japanese culture, salt is not only necessary to sustain human life, but is also a symbol of purification. Motoi views his labyrinths and unnavigable passageways as exercises that are futile yet necessary to his healing.
The other artists whose work will be on display are: Junko Ishiro. Her straightforward paintings are a document of what is and is not present in the landscape. To emphasize this point she has videotaped herself setting fire to the painting in the very spot it was painted in the landscape. Through this act of destruction she creates a dialogue between artist, subject, object and viewer.
Aiko Miyanga creates molds of shoes, dresses, and moths and casts them in naphthalene, a material commonly found in mothballs. The delicate, aromatic objects are placed in vitrines where over the course of the exhibition they slowly evaporate from exposure to the air, forming crystalline shapes that signify the ephemeral nature of all things.
Yuri Shibata immerses herself in the ephemera of her surroundings best exemplified in a series of prints made from collections of dust from museum galleries. She also prepares paint from natural materials such as cherry blossoms and her own hair, which is then used to create an image of the object that was destroyed to make the paint. These processes recall the fragility of life and the cyclical nature of all living things.
Ayako Aramaki lives and works in an urban environment, yet she longs for the countryside. As a way of merging these two worlds, she examines the function of unkempt properties in the context of the modern city by clearing the overgrown weeds, vines, and brush and collecting the clippings, which are then placed into house-shaped molds. The compost houses that span the cleared lot question the idea of development and our insistence on obscuring the view.
Akira Higashi utilizes traditional construction materials such as mud, straw, and wood to create enclosures that are based, initially, on the dimensions of his own body. Viewers are invited to enter the works and experience the company of one another in isolation from the outside. The "communication machines" filter out the din of modern society and allow us to appreciate and focus on one another.
Yumiko Yamazaki says, "Nature is composed of wind (air), rain (water), sun (light), ground (earth), and time." For Yamazaki these elements work together in a very specific harmony and it is this harmony that sustains all living things on earth. Our existence depends on nature, and it is necessary for us to realize this. Yamazaki works through a variety of media to embody the intention of nature around her and present it in the form of an artwork so that people can see and feel its subtle yet insistent patterns.
Rikuo Ueda sets in motion elaborate mechanical "writing" devices that are designed to harness the wind to create "wind drawings". These machines are generally constructed of natural materials such as bamboo and hemp rope, yet the structures themselves are quite beautiful and sophisticated in design and record subtle and dramatic variations in the wind by transferring the energy onto paper, canvas, or another surface.
Takasumi Abe is a sculptor and sound artist who utilizes the sounds that occur in both nature and inside the body to explore the indelible link of inner and outer worlds. He was intrigued with the seemingly inaudible sound of clouds, which prompted him to construct a large receiver and transmitter from welded steel rods and tissue. The ambient document that was recorded sought to verify his curious musings.
By meticulously cutting and layering hundreds of pieces of white paper, Noriko Ambe creates haunting, sculptural landscapes that evoke a subtle feeling of loss and detachment. These complex series of "geological" depressions provide a field upon which viewers may consider their own psychological terrain and its relation to the natural world.
This exhibition, the largest of its kind ever
undertaken in the Carolinas, is an unprecedented collaboration
of artists, institutions, organizations, and nations.
We also encourage people to come by the gallery beginning Apr.
11 until the exhibition opens, to watch Yamamoto Motoi create
his salt "mountain" and labyrinth.
For further info check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 803//775-0543 or visit (www.sumtergallery.org).
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