ARTIFACTS

The inaugural exhibition for gallery Cashi, “100 Degrees Fahrenheit Vol. 0,” presents an exciting group of six emerging photographers, painters and sculptors, who average just 24 years old. “Our focus is young artists,” explains director and curator Erika Matsushima, herself only 22. “The title of the show reflects the young and feverish energy of the artists, as does the name of the gallery.” Cashi is the Japanese word for Fahrenheit, which she’s combined with C (for contemporary) A (for art) and Shi (in Matsushima). Several of these precocious talents have already won awards, like photographer Tetsuomi Sukeda. The “Bacon Prize” figure given at the 101Contemporary Art Fair in April was created by sculptor Shotaro Hokari, who shows a larger version in this exhibition. The gallery is located in the Nihonbashi Bakurocho area, where a growing number of contemporary galleries have recently moved. Next door is well-known gallery Rontgenwerke AG, and nearby are Taro Nasu Gallery, Foil Gallery and Makii Masaru Fine Arts. Through June 28, Cashi Contemporary Art Shima. See exhibition listings (Ginza/Kyobashi/Tokyo) for details.

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: Adventures in Images 529: Modern Means 528: Remaking Modernism in Japan 1900-2000 527: Treasures of a Sacred Mountain: Kukai and Mount Koya 526: Jan Jansen: Master of Shoe Design 525: Yasuo Kuniyoshi: Between Two Worlds 524: Beyond The Border: Seung H-Sang and Yung Ho Chnag 523: Testimony of Life: Ancient Roman Portraits from the Vatican Museums 522: I Love Art 521: "My" Siberia and "My" Earth: The 30 Year Memorial Retrospective Exhibition of Yasuo Kazuki 520: Time of My Life: Art with a Youthful Spirit 519: Joy of Life: Two Photographers from Africa-JD 'Okhai Ojeikere and Malick Sidibé 518: Roppongi Crossing: New Visions in Japanese Art 2004+Kusamatrix 517: Exposition Musee Marmottan Monet 516: Treasures of a Great Zen Temple: Nanzenji 515: Johannes Itten: Ways to Art 514: Meiji Kaigakan (Memorial Picture Gallery) 513: Kaii Higashiyama: One Man's Path 512: Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary after Film 511: Yasujiro Ozu: Japanese Film Master 509/10: End-of-the-year review and 2004 preview 508: Surface tension 507: Jean Nouvel 506: Makoto Aida: My Ken Ten 505: Gaudi: Exploring Form 504: Ino Tadataka and Old Maps of Japan/Fusuma Paintings of Jukoin 503: Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum 502: Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art and Life 501: Today's Man 500: Taro Shinoda: Helicopter 1 Issues 499- Issues 449- Issues 399-

By Andrew Conti

I Dreamt of Flying: Noguchi Rika

Rocket Hill, 2001, Lightjet print, 154.5x124.5cm

At first glance, the “I Dreamt of Flying: Noguchi Rika” exhibition at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Shinagawa seems firmly grounded in the here and now. Noguchi’s imagery moves from a diver in a training pool to a seaside crane to an industrial rocket launch facility. Yet in small instances within this apparent banality, Noguchi’s adoration for her subjects emerges to transform the images into compelling objects of devotion.

The current exhibition presents work from throughout Noguchi’s career and although she’s displayed throughout Europe, the US and Asia, it’s the first solo museum show in Japan for the Saitama-born artist.

After passing through the lobby area of the residence-turned-museum, visitors might accidentally miss the room containing the series The Colors of the Planet. These deep blue works show the earth’s surface under the ocean off the coast of Okinawa, and have the entrancing quality of an unknown world flooded with the calming blue-green colors of the ocean.

To Dive, 1995, Lightjet print

Also on the first floor are the series To Dive and Seeing Birds. The former is the earliest of Noguchi’s work in the show and is composed of large-format prints of divers practicing in a training pool. These black-and-white images are rigidly structured, with the pool’s geometric design calling to mind Mondrian’s grids. A few pictures focus exclusively on this geometry, while others use the pool’s structure to create a claustrophobic grip around the unaware divers. In a few other images, sunlight bursts open the confined field of vision with a lens-flaring and image-bleaching brilliance.

Along the wall outside of this room are the small pictures comprising Seeing Birds. These images of tiny figures chasing kites along a sandy beachside have significantly less visual impact than Noguchi’s other works, and they appear to be records of an unexplained performance rather than art objects like the larger works.

Above the stairs that lead to the second floor, two looming images entitled Catching Water offer a remarkably serene view of seaside construction. In Noguchi’s vision of water falling from a crane, the machine takes on a soothing aspect of calm.

Past the stairs, I Dreamt of Flying and Rocket Hill present differing sensibilities related to the dream of flight. I Dreamt of Flying consists of two images of a blue sky punctuated by a blurry rocket and its smoke trail. These twin images evoke the essence of the title through their unfocused, abstract-painting-like simplicity.

I Dreamt of Flying, 2003, C-Print, 96x120cm

Rocket Hill, on the other hand, is filled with industrial buildings from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. These photographs capture the concrete landscape of an area devoted to the reality of flight and space. The colors are captivating; they pulse in electric blues, fading neon oranges and glowing yellows emanating from mechanical environments. The images again morph the familiar into the extraordinary as the industrial site becomes inhabited by the spirits of the artist’s wonder.

In Noguchi’s images, we are taken to places we have seen before, to ideas we understand, and we’re asked to stare and see them as she sees them—images of the latent possibilities in modern existence that fascinate Noguchi. In her photographs we find the simple but ethereal magic with which she chooses to see and express those possibilities.

Hara Museum of Contemporary Art Until July 25. 4-7-25 Kita Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku. Tel: 03-3445-0651. Open Tue-Sun 11am-5pm (Wed until 8pm). Adm: Adults ¥1,000, students ¥700, children ¥500. Nearest stn: Shinagawa, Takanawa exit. www.haramuseum.or.jp

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Hara Museum of Contemporary Art