noguchimuseum: tom sachs

This will be the only time we watch these videos as a class, to attend, you’ll need to:• Sign up

– Help greet visitors downstairs (extra credit) (2:40-3:10pm)– Help move chairs and setup the theater 2:30-3pm– Help clean up afterwards (4-4:15pm)

SEE THE VIDEOS HERE!

https://www.nps.gov/gegr/learn/photosmultimedia/multimedia.htm






• Kenny: So this OTHER artist is covering up noguchi’s work?? It seems disrespectful.

• Rasha: Cultural appropriation is almost always negative…this COULD be viewed in this way. Is this artist honoring Noguchi’s work??

• Ruhith: This could startle other visitors.

• Tots: It’s like a HUGE JUXTAPOSITION, it’s like the crates people haul around…

• ARDI: Looks like props for a movie• Tina: Noguchi’s work shows natural objects

and these other things are Incompatible…they’re modern and “processed.”

• Zen: Noguchi’s work is more natural….these other ones don’t seem like anyone took their time to make them. They’re like those traffic control barriers.

• Arvin: this bothers me. Keep it the same. Don’t change it. It doesn’t seem related to Noguchi’s work…and I’m not sure if noguchi would approve!

• Vicky: This doesn’t fit in!! It looks too “modern” – kozak: but noguchi’s work is MODERN by

definition!– But this is too contemporary.

Among the large stone sculptures by Isamu Noguchi in the Museum’s indoor/outdoor galleries, Artist Tom Sachs has set a tea house in a garden accessorized with variations on lanterns, gates, a wash basin, a plywood airplane lavatory, a koi pond, an ultra HD video wall with the sublime hyper-presence of Mt. Fuji, a bronze bonsai made of over 3,600 individually welded parts, and other objects of use and contemplation. Sachs has also produced a complete alternative material culture of Tea—from bowls and ladles, scroll paintings and vases, to a motorized tea whisk, a shot clock, and an electronic brazier.

TOM SACHS was born in 1966 in New York City. He attended Bennington College in Vermont and studied Architecture before becoming a full time artist. He is a sculptor, probably best known for his elaborate recreations of various Modern icons, all of them masterpieces of engineering and design of one kind or another. A lot has been made of the conceptual underpinnings of Sach’s work, how he samples capitalist culture, remixing, dubbing and spitting it back out again, so that the results are transformed and transforming. Equally, if not more important, is his total embrace of "showing his work." All the steps that led up to the end result are always on display.

On a practical level, this means that all seams, joints, screws or for that matter anything holding stuff together is left exposed. Nothing is erased, sanded away, or rendered invisible. On a more philosophical level, this means that nothing Sachs makes is ever finished. Like any good engineering project, everything can always be stripped down, stripped out, redesigned and improved.

BonsaiBronze casts of common bathroom items2016

IshidoroBronze2015

TsukubaiMixed Media2015

Pond BermPlywood, Latex paint, Steel hardware, Carp, Koi2016

KabutoHelmet, paracord, foamcore, fiberglass, epoxy2015

Initial Responses….

Tots: It’s cool. I mean it IS cultural appropriation though. It’s like when a tourist goes to a foreign country and participates…Sachs is giving us that opportunity. Kenny: TOTES AGREE WITH TOTS. Ny: At first I was kind of against the idea of having another artist alongside Noguchi…but the more I see, the more I think it fits in. Sachs helps you learn about Japanese culture more so you can appreciate Noguchi’s work more. JoJo: I like the little details he puts into his pieces, like in Ishidoro, the fact that it’s made of these common objects. Or the fact that he’s using REAL koi. It makes it more interesting. Gissell: The Bonsai tree needs to be maintained in a similar way that we need to maintain ourselves. ...

Initial Responses….

Arvin: He’s making the audience think beyond what they already know about Japanese culture…to imagine the materials these objects are made of….it’s not just what it LITERALLY is. Guzzy: Brand name things have a certain type of value to them. But When it comes to ceremonial (or religious things) they have more meaning to them. Zenzile: People won’t take it as if he’s trying to STEAL the culture or traditions…it seems like he’s done his research, and changed the material. Also, since you can actually perform the tea ceremony…you can engage AND be an audience.Nyle: The materials reference Japanese culture but they also reference stuff Americans may use in their daily life.Amina: He makes the audience a part of this work. Since Noguchi is not alive, he can’t make new work that is interactive…but Sachs is able to do that. .

A bit of History about Tea ceremonies…

The exhibition centers on an immersive environment representing Sachs’ distinctive reworking of chanoyu, or traditional Japanese tea ceremony—including the myriad elements essential to that intensely ritualistic universe.

Tea HouseMixed media2011-2012

The tradition of serving powdered green tea was introduced to Japan from China in the twelfth century. Japanese Buddhist priests who traveled to China to study religious scriptures returned to their homeland having acquired new customs. Zen Buddhist tea masters passed down these ideas for centuries before they were passed to Tea Master Sen Rikyu (1521–1591 CE), who established the type of tea ceremony that we know of today.


Sen No Rikyua portrait by Tōhaku Hasegawa

A painted scroll that would typically pay homage to the tea master Sen no Rikyu instead features Muhammad Ali, surrounded by his famed words, in Japanese, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”

“I appreciate his desire to appear not to take himself too seriously even though he’s a very serious artist,” said Eugenie Tsai, the Brooklyn Museum curator currently working with Mr. Sachs’s boombox show in Brooklyn “So much contemporary art can take itself too seriously,” she said. “It’s refreshing to find art that makes you smile, appreciate the ingenuity of the maker and look at life in a different way.”

“But while Mr. Sachs shares with Noguchi the impulse to connect the traditional East and the modern West, his work is in conspicuous ways the opposite of Noguchi’s. Mr. Sachs typically cobbles together recognizable objects like sneakers, boomboxes and architectural models from plywood, foam core, glue, tape and myriad sorts of hardware. His comically inelegant works look as if they were created by a manically inventive but not especially skilled handyman in his basement workshop. Noguchi’s sculpture, on the other hand, was invariably suave and formally unified, with a particular predilection for natural forms, textures and materials.” Ken Johnson, NY Times

What would Noguchi have thought about all this? Perhaps he’d have been appalled by Mr. Sachs’s ham-handed bricolage. But he might just as well have appreciated Mr. Sachs’s imaginative mix of tradition and DIY futurism. In an exhibition guide essay, the museum’s senior curator Dakin Hart persuasively argues that “the premise of Noguchi’s life and work was the idea that the truest form of respect you can show another culture, traditional or otherwise, is participation: deep engagement, followed by creative adaptation.” Ken Johnson, NY Times

Sen Rikyu’s guiding principles of Chanoyu are…• Harmony (Wa): harmony between

guests, hosts, nature, and setting• Respect (Kei): sincerity toward

another, regardless of rank or status

• Purity (Sei): to spiritually cleanse oneself—to be of pure heart and mind

• Tranquility (Jaku): inner peace that results from obtaining the first three principles; this inner peace allows one to truly share


This sharing of a single bowl of tea represents the unity of hearts and minds among the participants. In Chanoyu, there are many symbols of respect. Particularly important is the manner in which a tea bowl is presented and received. The host determines which side of the bowl is most beautiful. This side is referred to as the “front” of the bowl. As a bowl is presented to a participant, the front always faces the recipient. Similarly, when tea is consumed by a guest, the bowl is rotated so that its most beautiful side is facing the host, and so that the guest avoids drinking from its front. This practice reflects the spirit and principles of a tea gathering.


Tae: in Japan there’s a lot of customs that relate to respecting others and places...and this is more about the PROCESS than the END RESULT. (Like in Tom Sachs work! OMG OMG! I just got chills!)Kenny: The whole point is to show respect! By performing this custom it creates a broader sense of respect by second nature. Kevin: This is all about FORMALITY, every country has formalities…like in the USA, we hold doors for people when walking into rooms…

When we do the pledge of allegiance. Moments of silence for national tragedies.

flags at half-mass when someone historically important dies.

If you were to go to serene or peaceful places (churches, gov’t buildings, school, memorials)) , you can’t be all crazy and stuff. You’re expected to be formal.

Dinner table arrangement!! Politeness! ...

WHY DO THIS?

Ray: It’s important to share your spirit with someone else and to appreciate their energy as they pass it to you. Tina: This is a CULTURAL practice, not so much about just drinking tea because you like the taste. This is special it unites you with the other person through your emotions. Jakara: It’s like self discipline. When I drink tea I’m not going fold a napkin in a certain way or “cleanse” the bowl….Guzzy: The reason to do this is to have a contemplative moment, a meditative experience. A moment for you to just CHILL.

When do we have time to contemplate? Shower, Train, the Ferry ride, WHEN I AM MAKING

DOODY, listening to music, car rides, in the dark in my room, that moment before you fall asleep but you’re not awake, a long walk in the park, EVERY WEDNESDAY when new comics come out, churches, temples, etc. Stargazing, hiking. Nawal: I agree with TINA! It’s very symbolic of Japanese culture. Noguchi connected so much with the spirituality of things (in nature) and not just the materialistic side of the world.

WHAT DO YOU THINK???

“You can find out how to do something and then do it or do something and find out what you did.”

-Isamu Noguchi

Practice with subtractive sculpture

• Thurs/Fri: Practice with Balsa foam– Balsa foam is aplastic foam that carves like

butter and paints like wood. It's ideal for sculpting and model making because it can be carved, chiseled, sawed, textured, or embossed with sharp-edged detail.

• When we’re back from break:Prompt: Create an ABSTRACT work of art that references nature using plaster.

“You can find out how to do something and then do it or do something and find out what you did.”

-Isamu Noguchi

noguchimuseum: tom sachs

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