The Plaza of Mother Earth, Sekine

Relatum, U-Fan Lee, 1989

Connecting the Present to the Past

By, Rachael Solberg

            In order to understand Japanese art, it is imperative to study art produced in Japan by Japanese artists. The change throughout Japan’s history is evident in its works of art, and while many times we can see Western influences in Japanese art, they have always kept an individual and unique style that cannot be found anywhere else.  In contemporary art, there is a wide variety of styles that are still distinctly Japanese in the way they are rendered and what they express. One of the best examples of uniquely Japanese art can be found within groups of sculptors that use art as a way to connect the present to the past and most importantly, using nature as a relation to traditional Shinto and Buddhism beliefs.

            While researching contemporary Japanese art, it is very interesting to note the different styles artists use to convey their ideas. In particular, it is fascinating to see the wide range of media sculptors use today. However, the artists creating these relation works are more focused on the connections they represent and the idea they express as opposed to the art’s material or form. They want their work to allow the viewer to think of the broader theme that their work represents. Sometimes, they will express the concept of nature, and how we are connected to it. Other times, they will use subject matter to represent ideas present in the Japanese tradition of Shinto or Buddhism, which again, often include many nature-related themes.

            To demonstrate the important attributes of these artists interested in the abstract connections to Japan, we can look at individual works that encompass these motives that have been discussed. I have picked 3 pieces out that the artists created to serve as an intermediate between the Japanese people and their religious tradition and natural environment.  These three works, along with the description of Kawaguchi’s Relation: Plant from the previous page, are prime examples of using man-made materials to represent ideas beyond the material. In Kawaguchi’s pieces, he uses lead to partly cover natural objects up, while the other two artists use media placed directly into the outside environment, contrived in a manner to show the meaning within the work to represent a larger relationship found outside of it.

            In the first piece from 1978 entitled Relatum, U-Fan Lee uses a very simple construction with stones and irons placed outside in a clearing. In keeping with his personal philosophy when creating sculptures, Lee does very little to process any material; he simply brings them together as they are to play off of each other. A large focus of Lee’s work is to produce an idea of how, even though he uses very permanent materials, which can be found in large quantities, our time here is temporary as is the structure he has made. The stones in his pieces titled Relatum often have a dual meaning; the importance of natural resources throughout time to the Japanese people as well as the increase of industrial development.  Lee’s sculptures encompass a wide variety of relationships that can be found today, and I think a large part of his work is how personal one can make it to apply it to their own relationship to the world and humanity as a whole.

            In another sculpture made for the purpose of relationships, we see a completely different style to represent a similar idea. Nobuo Sekine’s work from 1989, Plaza of Mother Earth, utilizes a great deal more space than seen in Lee’s, but he still centers his theme on the earth’s relationship to humankind.  As the art historian, Janet Koplos, states, Sekine’s intent is to represent “both existence as demonstrated by the objective palpability of an object and existence as the subjectively sensed ki or universal life force.”  This idea is very obvious in Mother Earth because it is a structure we can actually walk around in. The spiral could be interpreted as earth at the center of all things, and we, humans, as a very real part of that existence. He includes multiple materials to represent all the elements found within the earth, but used by humans. At the very center, he places a shrine-like sculpture that is again, very symbolic of the importance of earth as the center of all things. Perhaps his idea was to make the audience feel very connected to everything in nature, while at the same time emphasizing the point that we are just a small part of it.

            Compared to Kawaguchi’s Relation: Plant, or other sculptures done in lead, such as his Relation:   Seed, these two other works deal just as much with relationship to nature, yet rendered in completely different styles.   Kawaguchi will partially cover objects, and just hint at them to evoke an idea from his audience, while Lee and Sekine’s works are very open and honest.  However, these differences are only in their material and not through their purposes. Each artist is composing a different way to view nature and our relationship with it.  This design is rooted primarily in traditional Japanese thought – especially with relation to spiritual ideas found from Shinto and Buddhist cultures allowing these sculptures to unite their individual aesthetic under a common Japanese ideal.

Howard N. Fox, A Primal Spirit, (New York:   Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 16.

Janet Koplos, Contemporary Japanese Sculpture, (New York:   Abbeville Press, 1991), 67.

Ibid.

Ibid., 69.

Ibid., 73.

Lead Space, Tatsuo Kawaguchi,

Relation: Plant, Tatsuo Kawaguchi,