{"id":10294,"date":"2016-09-09T20:37:13","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T20:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=10294"},"modified":"2016-09-10T14:02:20","modified_gmt":"2016-09-10T14:02:20","slug":"japanese-identity-is-woven-into-tomoko-sugimotos-the-unseen-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/japanese-identity-is-woven-into-tomoko-sugimotos-the-unseen-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Identity Is Woven Into Tomoko Sugimoto\u2019s \u201cThe Unseen World\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
How do generations of Japanese artists respond to rapid changes brought on by nuclear forces? This weekend through Sept. 11, Japanese expatriate artist Tomoko Sugimoto<\/a> showcases work, expanding on her use of Western craft and Japanese painting tradition. In a \u00a0serene room of embroidery, Sugimoto transforms the bodily aspect of postwar Japanese Fluxus<\/a> group, into an energizing experience you\u2019re invited to step into.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The end of imperial Japan was brought by the dropping of two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. At the end of the second World War, the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced the devastation of two nuclear weapons. Within the body of art that emerged out of the ashes of the war, artists with a knowledge of European modernism (Japan opened up to the West in the 1870s) grappled with a fractured national identity. Chief Curator at M+ Hong Kong, Doruyn Chong<\/a> (former Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA<\/a>) told ARTnews<\/a>, \u201cThe emperor himself was stripped of his status as a deity\u2026 Tokyo and much of the rest of Japan were going through a rapid reconstruction as the country was on its way to becoming an economic world leader.\u201d Many artists, in groups such as Gutai and Fluxus, sought experimentation in performance and spiritualism to come to terms with a newly enforced democracy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Japan\u2019s earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown<\/a> took place just one day before Sugimoto\u2019s first solo show in the US \u201cWhirl and Swallow\u201d<\/a> on March 12, 2011. In The New Yorker<\/a> two years after that show, the artist recalled \u201cAt first, I was so depressed. We already knew what was happening and could see these crazy scenes, and the numbers of dead kept rising\u2026 But so many people came.\u201d In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, people embraced the serene, joyous quality in her embroidered works.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This weekend and in past shows, the artist utilizes the European and American craft tradition of embroidery, but in a wholly Japanese way through the use of rough industrial canvas, referencing organic textiles, and flattened figures. Until now, Sugimoto’s practice has predominantly been on the increasing experience of hybrid cultural identity. She grew up in Tokyo but came to New York in 1996 to attend the School of Visual Arts,<\/a> before becoming the creative director of Takashi Murakami\u2019s<\/a> New York studio<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n