T. I. F. Stories
By Tatsumi Shinoda (Selection Director for Tokyo International Forum Artwork)
Artworks Gathered in gShip of Diversityh 11
Isamu Noguchi
The Japanese-American sculptor, Noguchi is deceased. When he passed away, I was in New York.
On a day when it was heavily snowing, I walked the snowy streets of a warehouse area and visited the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum on Long Island for the purpose of paying my respects. Noguchi was looking for something beautiful and dynamic while seeking a heart in his sculpture. The sculpture in the garden was covered with snow. I wanted to have one of Noguchifs works as an artifact for the International Forum.
I discussed this with the Noguchi Foundation of New York. The work, which was created as a piece of stage art and which was promised by Noguchi to be a sculpture, is now in the Forum. I placed it in the lobby of Hall C. Through the shade of trees outside, the back of the sculpture can be seen in a glass-walled room.
Since the work was made for a dance stage, it appears to treat the inside of the human body as an abstract scene. There are holes in it and the shape is streamlined. This sort of shape is called gbiomorphich, which may explain the trendy streamlined design at that time.
It was fashionable at that time to capture the inside of the human body as an unknown world and to express it in art as a biomorphic form. Young Noguchi was there. He had a strong desire to receive recognition as early as possible in the U.S.
Noguchifs father was a Japanese poet with a position at a university. His mother was an American. Noguchi went to the U.S. through the contacts of his mother who was already in the U.S. He lived as an American but he actually was an international man who fluctuated between American and Japanese cultures. Noguchi was once married to Lee Hsiang Lan, an actress.
In his sculpture at the Forum, young Noguchifs body exists as he wished to make unviewable scenes viewable. In later life, however, Noguchi deepened his spiritual nature in his works. He went back to stone material and traditions.
Where can Noguchifs spirit be located? In the human body or in a mass of stone of his works? Looking for a hint to the answer to this question, I visited another important base of Noguchi, which is in Japan.
In Takamatsu City of Shikoku, there is a town called Mure where Noguchi built his atelier. Excellent works are stored there. The stone in which he was going to have his ashes placed after his death was also carved in Mure. I visited Mure and saw it.
Intermissive spot-like markings remain on the surface of the stone. It is a big, vertically long stone on which spot-like beads were carved. Did Noguchi carve this, imagining that his ashes would be placed in it? I can never forget the stone.
[ When it is asleep and when it wakes up ]
Location: Both wall sides of 1F escalator, B Block
Photo: Sadamu Saito
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gShip of Diversityh = Artwork Collection Concept of the Tokyo International Forum
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