Nature's Sacred Calligraphy

I had the chance to see the Noguchi exhibition twice: in New York, at Whitney, then in DC, at Hirshhorn. This Minimalist sculpture is what impressed me the most.

Galaxy Calligraphy - a table top made of black Swedish granite, with the trace of a foot. A protuberance with another foot trace.

If there is a narrative here, it is a Cosmic one. Aliens came to visit some astral corp somewhere; they left their traces, and the corp traveled somehow to find Noguchi and his workshop.

Or it is a Biblical story, from the times of Genesis.

Is Galaxy Calligraphy an abstract sculpture? Maybe not. There are the two footprints: they are the objects, suggesting a narrative. The space is in dialog with them: the protuberance. There is a balance between space and objects, and a tension: Aliens visited and left traces; they should come again anytime.


And here is a photograph from the Home Galaxy Gallery: coastal sandstone formations on DeCourcy Island, British Columbia in evening light.




Are Minimalism and Photorealism so remote one another?



(Hirshhorn Museum)

(Isamu Noguchi)