A Star Is Reborn: Mariko Mori Expands Through Inner And Outer Space

White Hole shatters negative space and thoughts. Photo by Richard Goodbody.

When you Google Mariko Mori, you come face-to-face with images of a living doll—literally. The artist's 1994 piece Play With Me had her stationed outside a Tokyo toy store in anime-esque garb, with baby-blue pigtails and a plastic breastplate over a short, metallic dress. In another work from that year, Mori rode the subway in character as an alien visitor just arrived in Tokyo.

Today Japan Society Gallery launches Mori's first solo exhibition in New York in more than 10 years. A divergence from her work of centuries past (well, the 90s), Rebirth: Recent Work by Mariko Mori brings the focus on nature, conveying both its power and serenity.

The show “has a very urgent message about reconnecting with nature, which is not just an issue that’s being talked about by artists. It is a global concern right now,” says Dr. Miwako Tezuka, director of Japan Society Gallery, who curated the exhibition. “We’ve been experiencing such harsh weather. Everybody’s concerned about what’s going on with nature.”

Just a year ago this month, the brightest city in the world went dark for weeks when late-season Hurricane Sandy eliminated electricity from the bottom half of Manhattan. Polar bears swim for days. Mori’s home country will long feel the effects of the March 2011 tsunami.

While once Mariko Mori represented pop aesthetics and the subculture of Japan, her recent work has brought her back to basics: as in the beginning of it all.

“She’s going back to the roots," says Tezuka. "Not the cultural roots of Japan like she was doing before, but even farther back into a prehistoric period where there really were no cultural differences in the world. Where people didn’t have electricity or machines and really lived closely, intimately with nature.”

Unlike her past work, the pieces in Rebirth were born from Mori’s personal research, often from her travels to places like Egypt, Brazil, and Scotland, where so much ancient architecture still stands.

The show is full of light and shapes, a pale, shifting exhibition reminiscent of the sun rising over a young Earth again and again. Depending on one’s perspective, personal associations could range from the Book of Genesis to the opening sequence of Star Wars to whatever Terrence Malick’s been up to. Rare will be the attendee who doesn't spot Stonehenge.

The centerpiece of the show is an installation called White Hole (pictured above): the opposite of space's terrifying black holes of childhood fascination and nightmares. A domed enclosure built in the south gallery, White Hole starts as a pitch-dark space and gradually illuminates with the projection of swirling light.

Tezuka explains: “It’s based on the theory of a white hole--the antithesis of a black hole. Everything that was killed by the black hole shapes together as a renewed energy and emerges from the white hole. It’s an astrophysics theory that Mariko has been very interested in in recent years.”

Another celestial piece (though firmly fixed to the gallery floor) is Transcircle 1.1 Nine pillars made of stone and an industrial acrylic polymer synchronize with the position of the nine (yes, nine!) planets in our solar system. Their individual pastel colors pulsate at speeds reflecting the planets' orbits around the sun.

Rebirth is an ethereal picture of prehistory, astronomy, geology, ancient religion and technology, showing how they all mix in the world around us.

When asked how to sum up the show in a sentence, Tezuka said “pure” and then laughed, realizing she didn't need half a dozen more words to convey its Zen-like ambiance. “A lot of things are white”—Mori’s signature color—“and the basic concept is pure and simple: be aware of the presence of nature.”

Though the galleries proper are on the second floor, visitors will get a taste of this pure simplicity when they are greeted by Ring, hanging against the waterfall of the Society's indoor bamboo garden.

“Mariko placed it in an environment that symbolizes nature, where there’s water, earth, plants and light from above,” Tezuka says. The piece is a prototype for a large-scale version that will be hung above a Brazilian waterfall in the near future.

From sunset each evening through Sunday, Mori’s latest video work Ālaya lights up the building just above the Society’s entryway for not only gallery-goers but passersby on the busy streets outside. The title alludes to the fundamental consciousness all sentient beings share in Buddhist philosophy.

It’s worth coming in to escape the masses, as Tezuka notes: “New York life is so busy all the time. You are surrounded with noise and different crowds. Rebirth will calm you down. Instead of going to yoga, come see this exhibition!”

Rebirth: Recent Work by Mariko Mori is on view at Japan Society through January 12, 2014.

--Marisa Rindone

Mariko Mori's Ring. Photo by the author. Via.

Sound Bites

Went to j-CATION? Samurai Beat Radio caught up with Yuki Chikudate, singer of the Brooklyn-based dream pop band, Asobi Seksu, just before their performance at Japan Society.

You can download the podcast of the interview here or visit the Samurai Beat Radio Official Blog to check out some cute photos!

On a similar note, STEIM, the Amsterdam-based music laboratory of experiments in electronic sound and instruments, are spending the weekend of May 7th-8th at Japan Society.

STEIM artists Yutaka Makino and dj sniff discuss the process of creating their innovative electronic music and share their perspectives on the latest international collaborations in an Artist Talk and Demo. Then, in the Mobile Touch Exhibition, visitors will have the rare opportunity to make their own music on STEIM’s wild collection of invented electronic instruments, including the Finger Web, the Cracklebox, the Voice Scratcher and the Headbanger.

And where would we be without throwing a concert?

For this performance, STEIM’s Artistic Director, Takuro Mizuta Lippit, has assembled a lineup of groundbreaking international artists from STEIM’s roster, including:

• Yutaka Makino (Japan/Germany): A composer and technical wizard who has pioneered the blending of music, sculpture and architecture
• ABATTOIR: A duo comprised of Audrey Chen (U.S.)—vocalist, cellist and analog electronics musician/composer and Robert van Heumen (Netherlands)—a composer and tinkerer equally at home with a keyboard or a joystick
• A collaboration between digital media composer Yannis Kyriakides (Netherlands) and guitarist Andy Moor (U.K./ Netherlands) of the legendary Dutch punk band The Ex
• dj sniff (Japan/Netherlands), a.k.a. Takuro Mizuta Lippit—turntable musician and Artistic Director of STEIM

Psst...If you want a sneak preview, check out this video!

Artists: Yoko Ono & Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York

Yoko Ono is forever associated with the Beatles, yet her aristocratic family life in imperial Japan, long before she met John Lennon, was equally intriguing. Yoko is back in Japan for a three-week trip and, for the first time, has agreed to a journalist (Craig McLean of The Times Online) accompanying her to write about this side of her multi-faceted life:

"She may not look it, but Yoko Ono, a woman who has survived three decades of tragedy, debunking and myth, is now 77 years old. For many of those years, she has been blamed, perhaps unfairly, for the break-up of the world’s best-loved musical partnership: she was the woman who came between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, insisting on being in the studio as the band disintegrated. She also cradled Lennon just a few seconds after the fatal shots from a revolver rang out on a cold New York night in December 1980.

As she has grown older she has become — perhaps inevitably — more reflective about her past. She has mellowed and in recent years visits to Japan have become more frequent. She returned with Lennon several times in the 1970s at a point in his life when he had all but disappeared from public view."

Japan has been a constant presence in New York since 1860, when Walt Whitman witnessed a samurai delegation riding down Broadway. Not long after the first political and commercial visits, awareness of Japanese art began to trickle into Gotham, slowly at first but later building into a thriving network of creative exchange.

From October 2007 to January 2008, Japan Society featured 33 selected artists, all Japanese-born yet extremely diverse, and Yoko Ono was among them. The exhibition, entitled Making a Home, consisted of six sections that were linked by ideas the artists associated with “home,” ranging from comfort and safety found in physical structures to angst and loneliness experienced when living in solitude.

All of the Making a Home artists are true citizens of the world who have ventured beyond their homeland to enjoy the advantages of being an artist in New York, as well as experience the uncertainty that comes with starting afresh.

Artists: Paramodel & The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture

Paramodel is an artist unit formed in 2001 by Yasuhiko Hayashi and Yusuke Nakano. Their title is essentially a manifesto in sum--fusing the words Paradise, Paradox, and Model. In addition, the portmanteau plays upon the Japanese word puramodel (toy plastic dioramas). Through elaborate combinations of plastic toys parts with other everyday objects, they attempt to create blueprints of Paradise whilst underscoring life's paradoxes. Paramodel's expansive oeuvre ranges from massive, room-scaling installations, to mini-sculptures, with videos, drawing, and photography, and other media in between.

The above piece is called tommy sushi and it is featured in a series of similar sculptures that merge TOMY toy cars, plastic food models used by restaurants, and the dishes accompanying those cuisines.

Teriha Faye Yaegashi's interpretation from online gallery AZITO is too good not to repeat verbatim:  

"Strapped down to the toy cars, the plastic foods are readily docked onto the very dishes which would be used in their consumption. Yet, the cars cannot budge from the perimeter of the dish; the food cannot be consumed; and the viewer recognizes the paradox in having the exact collection of items needed for transporting food onto the table and into our mouths - and yet, not being able to perform either unction."

The best part? They're for sale!

Japan Society had a wild exhibition in Spring 2005 called Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture, a major exhibition not only featured in our gallery but also in installations of artwork in New York City’s public spaces and mass transit system. Like Paramodel, the art dealt heavily in the omnipresent plastic toys that have infiltrated our lives. So of course, Godzilla and a pair of Gundams were there, along with fantastic installation pieces like Teruhisa Kitahara's collection of Japanese vintage toys from the 1960s - 1970s below.

The exhibition explored the phenomenally influential manifestations of otaku culture -- the subculture of “geeks” or “pop culture fanatics”-- a fantasy world where apocalyptic imagery, fetishistic commerce, and artistic vanguards meet. The otaku culture, which emerged in the early 1980s, is obsessed with darkly fantastic science fiction, video games, comic books (manga) and film animation (anime). Little Boy features work by leading creators of these popular forms as well as paintings, sculpture, and installations by contemporary Japanese Neo-Pop artists whose work draws from otaku culture.

The exhibition, public art projects, and accompanying book created a dynamic arena in which to discover what Japanese critics, artists and intellectuals consider the most exciting and challenging cultural developments in Japan today.

Curated by celebrated artist Takashi Murakami, Little Boy was the final installment of his Superflat trilogy, a series of exhibitions that have introduced a new wave of Japanese art and explored the interrelationships between vanguard art, manga and anime, and their forerunner, Ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

To learn even more about the powerful yet subtle pieces (or to just check out awesome pictures of the art), check out our Event In-Depth page.

Artists: Sayaka Kajita Ganz & Contemporary Bamboo Masters

Sayaka Kajita Ganz is a Japanese sculptor who now resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Make sure to check out her gallery of breathtaking sculptures made from recycled materials. Her work as an undeniable elegance to it that captures movement effortlessly.

Acting as a delicious juxtaposition to Ganz's pieces is the work of contemporary Japanese bamboo masters whom we featured at the JS gallery during the 2008/2009 winter exhibit.

Over the past few years, Japanese bamboo artists have reached far beyond the established boundaries of their craft. Our exhibition was the first in the world to be devoted exclusively to Japanese bamboo as a sculptural medium, featuring 23 innovators, old and young, who exploit to the full the tension between traditional skill and new expressive opportunities. Ranging from ethereal, computer-designed filigrees, through dramatic wall pieces to angry-looking, dirt-encrusted tangles and anthropomorphic, sexually charged sculptures, the 90+ works we had on display demonstrated awesome technique, meticulous attention to detail, and extraordinary creativity.

The piece above, entitled Breath, was crafted by Honma Kazuaki (born 1930), who moved beyond simple sculpture and flower baskets in the 1960s to create a series of bamboo paintings that earned him the two Tokusen prizes necessary to become a full member of Japan's Nitten world. Honma is the only living bamboo artist to achieve this status and has used his position to encourage other bamboo artists to expand their vision.

Despite the drastically different mediums, the sculptures of Ganz and bamboo masters such as Kazuaki have an unmistakeable fluidity to them. There is life and movement captured in the exquisitely crafted pieces and it is obvious that they are devoted masters of the materials they employ.

Leur Existence - Tree Project

THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK GALLERY

December 9, 2009 - February 12, 2010
Hiroshi Sunari
Leur Existence - Tree Project

Opening Reception
Wednesday, December 9th
6pm to 8:30pm

Over 60 years ago, the city of Hiroshima was decimated by one nuclear bomb. Hibaku trees, those that still live from the time of the atomic bombing, have shown an inspiring ability to persevere. Since 2005, Sunari has been collecting seeds from hibaku trees in Hiroshima and has distributed them to nearly 400 Tree Project participants in 23 countries. Leur Existence – Tree Project will feature a selection of these plants, which have been donated by the participants, as well as photographic and written documentation of the process. Plants will be presented in ceramic elephant-foot pots, designed and created by the artist.

- - -

This is really exciting. We featured the artist’s powerful White Elephant—a reaction to his experience being downtown on the morning of September 11, 2001—in our 2007 exhibition, Making a Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York.