Yuko Otomo: GARDEN (FOR ISAMU NOGUCHI)

Isamu Noguchi - Shodo Shima Stone Study, 1976
Minneapolis Walker Art Center
(see also http://updateslive.blogspot.com/2008/06/noguchi-shodo-shima-stone-study.html)

I like to think of gardens as sculpturing of space: a beginning, and a grouping to another level of sculptural experience and use: a total sculpture space experience beyond individual sculptures.

(Isamu Noguchi)

GARDEN (FOR ISAMU NOGUCHI)

a boy is born
of a swimmer
& a poet

he hears nature's voice
in a perfectly split ripened peach
& dictates sounds of a brook

a dead bird cannot scare him
for he sees all

(Yuko Otomo)

(Yuko Otomo)

Noguchi - Shodo Shima Stone Study

Isamu Noguchi - Shodo Shima Stone Study, 1976
Minneapolis Walker Art Center

Shodo Shima Stone Study: half Japanese - half English name.

A Japanese garden shrinked to essence. Boulders bordered by a granite rectangle, broken in two halves. A sensation of force: objects suck the surrounding space. . Shodo Shima means Island, or it means Magical Garden, which is right: these rocks become magical objects. The magic of objects, making possible the irresistible absorption of space.

Contemplating the sculptures of Noguchi is the way to start understanding Minimalism.

And not only: the way to start to understand the relationship between artwork and ambient in contemporary art. Says Noguchi, I like to think of gardens as sculpturing of space: a beginning, and a grouping to another level of sculptural experience and use: a total sculpture space experience beyond individual sculptures.

(this PowerPoint presentation was authored by Nellwyn)

(Contemporary Art)

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 - Grey Sun, 1967

Noguchi makes visible the basic forms and forces of nature
(Miranda McClintic)

Noguchi, the great Japanese mag. Objects that suck the space, objects that carry the space within themselves and make the effort to free the space, objects in silent dialog with the space: that is Noguchi. Magic of light, magic of post-Brancusian geometry, mixed with magic of Japanese essences, magic of black and white, and of infinite nuances between black and white, magic of grey.

The Sun of Noguchi is grey, it is the sun containing the whole Universe, and the Light, and the Darkness. It's over. There is no more past, no more future. We are beyond the end. The Sun is strong and bored. It is the Sun as the Unique Whole. It is the Sun as the Unique Nothingness.

It's almost Minimalism: this sculpture had sucked all its narrative within; still you feel that it was a narrative, the World which is no more.




(American Art and Portraiture)

Isamu Noguchi - Great Rock of Inner Thinking

Isamu Noguchi - Great Rock of Inner Thinking (basalt, 1974)

at Washington DC National Gallery of Art

The beginning of World: the whole Universe captive inside, a second prior to explode and make the Cosmos as we know today.

(Washington DC National Gallery of Art)

Spatiu si obiecte: Isamu Noguchi

Shodo Shima Stone Study, al lui Noguchi, creat in 1978 pentru Walker Art Center din Mineapolis. Un nume jumatate englezesc, jumatate japonez (studiu in piatra de Shodo Shima). Este o gradina nipona redusa la esential - niste bolovani uriasi de rau ingraditi de un dreptunghi de granit rupt in doua. Ai o senzatie de forta: obiectele concentreaza spatiul inconjurator.
Se pare ca Shodo Shima inseamna in japoneza gradina magica - si intr-adevar, bolovanii aceia de rau, ingraditi de dreptunghiul de granit rupt in doua, devin obiecte magice. Magia obiectelor, care face cu putinta absorbirea irezistibila a spatiului. Magul Noguchi, care isi transfera magia in operele sale.
Iar undeva Noguchi spune, "I like to think of gardens as sculpturing of space: a beginning, and a grouping to another level of sculptural experience and use: a total sculpture space experience beyond individual sculptures."

The Inner Stone pare un inceput de lume. Este in aripa de arta moderna a Galeriei de Arta din Washington. Universul intreg concentrat, o secunda inainte de a exploda in Cosmosul asa cum il stim astazi.

Galaxy Calligraphy - o bucata mare de granit negru, pe care se afla urma unui picior. Bucata de granit are o umflatura, pe care se afla o alta urma de picior. Mi s-a parut aici remarcabil echilibrul dintre spatiu si obiect.

Noguchi, marele mag japonez, in tinerete ucenic al lui Brancusi. Obiecte care absorb spatiul, obiecte care poarta in ele spatiul si sunt in plin efort de a-l elibera, obiecte in dialog tacut cu spatiul. Magia luminii, magia geometriei de dupa Brancusi impletita cu magia esentelor japoneze, magia alb-negrului.