Shinichi Maruyama, Nude #2, 2012
Here’s new work from artists we’ve looked at earlier in 2012 — let’s close out the year with art full of new life.
These earlier works by Shinichi Maruyama, visceral flings of fluids treated as sculpture, put his newest work in context. These beauties were captured with a quick camera snap — the detailed split-second frozen as art. His new Nudes turn his use of a camera on its head, leaving the shutter open for an extended exposure. Instead of fluids, a nude body’s vigorous antics become a beige-pink mirage of fluid. Still that same fascination with winging form but completely new and now human.
works by Shinichi Maruyama. top: Kusho #3, 2006. bottom: Water Sculpture #9, 2009
Shinichi Maruyama, Nude #6, 2012
The resonance of Maruyama’s work with some light-painting-performance art is hard to miss. And with the dreamy swathes made with slitscan photography. A dialog among the three world-views would be worth hearing.
Light painting by Julien Breton, aka Kaalam via emel
slitscan photograph Temporal Form #11 by Ansen Seale via ansenseale.com
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Shinji Turner-Yamamoto: Global Tree Project is a recent publication about an artistic enterprise we looked at in July. The book cover depicts Turner-Yamamoto’s 2010 installation Hanging Garden in the deconsecrated Holy Cross Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. I respect this artist’s struggle to speak in new languages, and to speak of us and of Earth.
book cover via globaltreeproject,org
In 2012 he created an installation in Grand Rapids, Michigan called Sidereal Silence. It included audio and video — I would love to have experienced how he handled his media. He speaks about the installation below:
Turner-Yamamoto’s study for the installation Sidereal Silence via artprize.org
Last year in September in Grand Rapids I went to an underground gypsum mine to collect materials for my ArtPrize installation. I was with a group—the SiTE:LAB team, the curator and his students, and videographers. Yet despite their presence I still experienced instances of total subterranean silence and darkness and an accompanying fear and awe toward the unknown. I certainly could not comprehend my proximity to deep time embodied in this gypsum, formed 350 million years ago, or the inherent entity of the void. The minerals, especially their crystals carry a sidereal darkness and silence. My installation will be an homage to this silent and somehow sentient being, this mineral, this essential element without which our bodies can not exist. via SiTE:LAB
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History Trees, Olympic Park, London, by Ackroyd & Harvey. See the same tree arriving on site below. via Ackroyd & Harvey
The ten trees will reach full maturity over the next 25-30 years reaching up to 18 metres tall… Three trees have been planted and will take root in time for the Games and the remaining seven will be planted post Games. Once planted, each tree will have a large ring, engineered from either bronze or stainless steel and weighing up to 500kg, securely suspended within the tree canopy with branches and ring slowly fusing together over time.
The rings will be six metres in diameter and engraved on the interior face with text capturing an archive of history from each location. The tenth tree – an English Oak – will hold a bronze ring inscribed with local residents’ recollections of the area. The shadow cast by this ring will be permanently captured by a bronze inlay on the ground, and each year the shadow and ring will momentarily align to commemorate a significant date and time during the London 2012 Games. via Ackroyd & Harvey
To understand the scale these artists work at — a photograph of the Fraxinus excelsior [European ash] tree arriving at Olympic Park, London.
Visualization of the English Oak at Stratford High Street, London, showing the two metal bands — one in the tree, one in the ground.
Inscriptions for the first three trees are shown here on the Ackroyd & Harvey website.
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The shortest day has come and gone, the calendar year rolls towards its end —
I hope you all have had delights and discoveries in 2012
and will find much to surprise and nurture you in the coming year.
Sloan