More than three decades ago when we lived in Calgary, Magellan and I thought we’d go to Japan in the spring for the sakura (桜), the Japanese word for cherry blossoms derived from saku 咲, which means to bloom. I even studied Japanese in anticipation. For some reason that I don’t recall, we didn’t go. How foolish […]
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller: Sculpting Space
“You’ve got to come hear this,” I said, phoning Magellan and asking him to meet me at the Power Plant to hear Forty Part Motet as soon as his meeting was over. I was happy to spend an extra hour listening to the art (yes, listening) until he arrived. It was in Toronto in 2004, the […]
Oku-iya-kazura-bashi
At this time in autumn twenty-five moons ago, we were bashing around on the “living husband-and-wife bridges” in Japan’s most secluded wilderness in a “wild monkey cart.” Needs explaining doesn’t it?
Poetry in Droplets
Quietly, our stockinged feet touch the cool, grey floor. Like a water droplet at the moment of landing, this concrete shell elongates. Pillarless. Seamless. Edgeless. There is no boundary between floor and ceiling. An inclusive space. For a single, solitary artwork. The silence is profound. There are no cameras. Talking is prohibited; even children’s voices […]
Nagoro’s Dolls of the Dead and Departed
“Eek-y-guy” What? “Eek-y-guy” is how you pronounce the Japanese word ikigai, which means having a sense of purpose. For the Japanese jubilado Tsukimi Ayano, making scarecrows is her ikigai.
