LIVING WITH ART
How Mori Art Museum Has Worked with Six Different Artists to Create Public Art at Toranomon Hills Residential Tower
In January 2022, Toranomon Hills Residential Tower was finally completed. In addition to the lush greenery and interior design that pursues an intrinsic sense of richness, the residence will also feature high-level artworks in the communal areas. We spoke to Kataoka Mami, Director of the Mori Art Museum, who oversees the curation of the art works, and Takahashi Mina of the museum's Exhibition and Production Group, who is responsible for public art.
PHOTO BY HIROAKI SUGITA (PORTRAIT)
INTERVIEW & TEXT BY MARI MATSUBARA
Translation by Yoshiko Kogi
—— Toranomon Hills Mori Tower was completed in 2014, followed by the Business Tower in January 2020 and now the Residential Tower in January 2022. This is the third tower in the “Toranomon Hills Area Project”, which also includes Toranomon Hills Station Tower, scheduled for completion in 2023. Mori Building has always been keen to incorporate “public art” into its projects, with ARK Hills, Roppongi Hills and Toranomon Hills all having public art features. I understand that Toranomon Hills Residential Tower will also feature a number of artworks. How is the project progressing?
K: The curators of Mori Art Museum and I proposed a plan, and after discussions with Mori Building, we selected six globally-prominent artists to create new works as commissioned works. The project itself began around 2018, with a series of exchanges with the artists, and although there was an unexpected incident with the COVID-19 pandemic along the way, we managed to work our way through it and now all the works are ready to be shipped to Japan or installed on site.
—— Is there a difference between selecting art for the common areas of a residential building and curating for an exhibition?
K: Yes, it’s absolutely different. Contemporary art is wide-ranging and often reflects the social and political context in which each artist is situated. Such concepts are key and important in curating a regular exhibition, but they are not necessarily appropriate for art in a residence. In the hallways, entrances and walls that residents pass every day, it is important to have works that are not too provocative or too individualistic.
There are also the physical constraints of the space. Together with the interior designer, we decided where to put the works and how big they should be. It does also take skills to create works that are suitable for the volume and nature of the space. In addition, the works are usually placed without the protection of a glass case, and the porch is exposed to the outside air, so their physical durability is also an issue. We also had to consider whether the appeal of the work itself was in keeping with the concept of the development, which naturally led us to narrow down the list of possible artists.
—— Could you introduce us to the six artists and show us the works that will be installed in the Residential Tower?
K: Sopheap Pich is a Cambodian artist who creates abstract shapes out of rattan, bamboo and other local plants. The shapes are sometimes reminiscent of flowers, shells or organs. One piece will be placed behind the front desk and three pieces will be placed in the hallway leading to the elevator hall. They are made of woven natural materials, so you can see through them, so they are not intimidating even though they are over 3 meters long. I thought it would be more appropriate in this location to have a lightness of vision rather than a large sculpture in the hallway.
T: With a view of the park through the glass in the background, the position of the work makes this organic work harmonious with the landscape outside.
K: Bernard Frize is one of the most important contemporary French painters, whose retrospective exhibition was held at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 2019.
The artist is characterized by his abstract paintings, which he paints in large strokes using broad-brush strokes. We were looking for a work to hang on the large wall at the end of the hallway, so I asked Bernard. He is able to work in large sizes, and for here, he joined four canvases together to create a large painting, approximately 4 meters long and 3 meters wide. Because of the large area, we wanted something abstract with bright colors, rather than figurative with limited imagery, and the result was perfect for the location.
K: Mika Tajima is an artist well known for her series using unique techinique of expressing sound through Jacquard weaving. For this project, I was thinking about how we could project the history and memories of Toranomon, the town that is being developed, into art and I remembered her. Tajima came to Japan before the COVID-19 pandemic and recorded various sounds from different parts of Toranomon and made a work of art out of it.
T: She recorded the sound of concrete being poured at the construction site of the Residential Tower, the sound of workers doing radio gymnastics at their morning assembly, and the sound of hands being clapped during Shinto purification ceremony at the Atago Shrine nearby. Once the waves of the collected sounds were visualized, certain parts were selected and colored patterns were made into textiles. The wave motion data is said to be a short sound of 0.few seconds.
K: The colors are inspired by Tajma’s own memories of visiting the area around Toranomon Hills Residential Tower, and the five works will be displayed in the hallway on the second floor.
K: Shingo Francis is known for his abstract paintings with beautiful color surface composition, some of which are left unpainted or have some kind of gesture. The painting commissioned for this project will be placed in the library and the dining area. I chose Francis’ work because I thought it would be more appropriate to have only a mass of colors rather than a figurative painting with a specific image, since the space is lined with the spines of various books on the wall shelves.
T: He made two rather large oil paintings, 3 meters long by 2 meters wide.
K: Ishizuka Genta is an artist who is rapidly gaining popularity for his work with urushi lacquer. Two three-dimensional works will be installed in the Sky Suite Entrance. urushi lacquer is a symbolic material of Japanese art and the main material of traditional crafts, so I thought its preciousness and gravity would be suitable for a premium place. The lustrous shine of the lacquer is beautiful and it has a profundity that seems to draw you in when you stare at it.
T: One of the pieces, made of dry lacquer, will be installed on the wall and the other, finished in gold leaf, will be placed on the reception counter.
K: The strange shape of the work, which looks like a sack full of spheres, seems to be filled with living creatures. He is an outstanding contemporary artist who has given a dynamic impression and a sense of life to lacquer, which has traditionally been regarded as a static material.
K: Sam Falls created the ceramic-tiled wall for the car porch. He is a painter who often places plants such as flowers and branches together with dyes on a fresh canvas placed on the ground and leave it overnight. He then removes the plants and uses a unique technique to fix the natural forms onto the canvas, either as a stencil or as an early photograph. The original plan was for Sam to come to Japan and collect plants in the Shigaraki mountains, which would then be pressed directly into the clay and fired. However, the COVID-19 pandemic struck just before he was about to come to Japan we had to find an alternative plan in Japan and he had to change this plan. It was decided instead to send Sam’s work on canvas to Japan to be photographed and then printed on ceramic.
T: For the production of the ceramic, we asked for the cooperation of Ohtsuka Ohmi Ceramics Co., Ltd. in Shigaraki, which has an established reputation for its techniques. Sam sent us two canvases measuring approximately 2.5 meters long by 10 meters wide. We photographed them, converted into data and transferred onto ceramic tiles. Realistic leaves and branches are printed in their original size. If you look closely, you can see the marks where he stepped on the canvas with his shoes, or the footprints of his dog, it’s interesting to imagine the process of creation.
K: I think it is wonderful that in Sam’s method, the painting is not created by human power, but by natural conditions such as wind, light and rain. How can people who live in the middle of the city feel the seasons and the taste of nature? I thought that in a life where we are surrounded by hard things like glass, metal and concrete, there is a need for artworks like this, where we can feel the warmth of the hands and the scenes of nature. This is also true of the work of other artists. Sam’s work, which comes to the entrance of the tower, has a particularly sophisticated and calming color palette, which I felt was appropriate for the atmosphere of Toranomon Hills. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to change our production methods, but in the end we think it was a good move.
—— What is special about the public art in Toranomon Hills Residential Tower?
K: All six of the artists selected for the exhibition are highly regarded in the international contemporary art world. I am delighted that we have been able to bring such museum quality to bring such museum collection-level pieces to the residential building. We have been helped by the relationships that the Mori Art Museum has built with many of the artists through the many exhibitions it has presented. Everything we do is commissioned work, so the only way to support the long process of working together towards the same goal of creating a work of art to be placed in an unknown building is through mutual trust.
So we would be very happy if the residents could feel proud that they live in a place with such beautiful art. To achieve this, we would like to give residents the opportunity to meet the artists and explain their work to them. We hope that by learning about the intentions of the artists and the process of making their work, people will gain a deeper understanding of the artworks and appreciate the closeness of living with art.
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