The Heart of the Tree
Kinosaito Art Center, Verplanck, NY (5/11-12/13, 2024)
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, NY (6/17-10/24, 2023)
PHOTO CREDIT: CHIKA KOBARI @Kinosaito / SOPHIA ELIZABETH @BBG
Year: 2023-24
Size: H90" W56" D56"
Medium: welded steel, stainless steel, brass, bronze, hand-blown glass
"I grew up interpreting trees as spirits or humans like myself. The personification or deification of nature is fundamental in Japanese mythology and Shintoism. The Heart of the Tree offers the presence of a pumping or broken heart or rooted tree or female figure, with colored glass fruits and IV drips feeding a new sprout within itself. It is fruiting and empowering while trying to recuperate from damage and alarming us. I took the title from the poem by Henry Bunner, which expresses what it means to plant a tree for a community.”
Size: H90" W56" D56"
Medium: welded steel, stainless steel, brass, bronze, hand-blown glass
"I grew up interpreting trees as spirits or humans like myself. The personification or deification of nature is fundamental in Japanese mythology and Shintoism. The Heart of the Tree offers the presence of a pumping or broken heart or rooted tree or female figure, with colored glass fruits and IV drips feeding a new sprout within itself. It is fruiting and empowering while trying to recuperate from damage and alarming us. I took the title from the poem by Henry Bunner, which expresses what it means to plant a tree for a community.”
Interactive outdoor swing sculpture "Window" series
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2014
Size: H 13' W 15' L 18'
Material: Steel tubes, cast resin and acrylic panels
"Window" was commissioned by the Model to Monument public art program by The Art Students League of NY, and The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Window is a colorful interactive sculpture with a functional swing, stimulating the viewers' sensory and physical perceptions. I deliberately used the word "window" to symbolize our perceptions. Viewers can look in and out through the clear and translucent acrylic windows on a vessel-like sculpture.
Reddish colors contrast with the colors of the cityscape. The swing motion travels between the internal colorful environment and the landscape, offering the sensation of moving in and out of the spaces. Unlike conventional swing chain handles, it uses metal pipes, which create smooth movement without side-to-side motion.
"Window" is the whole impactful experience that happens within the public and the artwork, with a familiar play form.
Window II |
Rye Town Park and Beach, Rye, NY / Jun 2019 - Nov 2020
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2019-2022
Size: H 10' W 11' L 12.5'
Material: stainless steel, steel, paint, fabric, acrylic
Public comments:
Peggy Roalf, chief editor of AI-AP magazine, reviewed, “Window II also looks like a giant plaything—so irresistible that I found myself inside of it and flying through the air within minutes of seeing it last fall.”
An instagram user commented in July 2020, “Window II has the ability to send me to an alternative reality, one that operates on joy and harmony, not fear and hate. Thank you from the bottom of my heart”.
Size: H 10' W 11' L 12.5'
Material: stainless steel, steel, paint, fabric, acrylic
Public comments:
Peggy Roalf, chief editor of AI-AP magazine, reviewed, “Window II also looks like a giant plaything—so irresistible that I found myself inside of it and flying through the air within minutes of seeing it last fall.”
An instagram user commented in July 2020, “Window II has the ability to send me to an alternative reality, one that operates on joy and harmony, not fear and hate. Thank you from the bottom of my heart”.
Future Flight
JFK International Air Terminal 4, Queens, NY
Earth Month Celebration project in partnership with Materials for the Arts
PHOTO CREDIT: Materials for the Arts
What Is Your Name?
LaGuardia Airport, Queens, NY / Japan Society / The City College of New York / Immigrant Artist Biennial
Collaborative Socially Engaged Project with Visual Artist, Haksul Lee
2020
Size: H 6’ W 3’ D 3’
Material: Paper, steel, aluminum
What Is Your Name? is composed of a sound installation and blue and white airplane-like sculptures that face each other as though one is a reflection of the other. For this work, Lee and Takauji interviewed people in public spaces throughout New York City such as LaGuardia Airport and Flushing Queens Public Library to collect their names in their mother languages, handwriting, and voices. The various colors and alphabets on the white side of the work’s sculpture illustrate the diversity of people. The artists have transcribed these names into the International Phonetic Alphabet on the blue side to symbolize unity, signifying our collective effort to understand other languages: IPA is used to determine the pronunciation of any spoken language: Therefore, for anyone who studies a foreign language, IPA plays a critical role. IPA is a symbol of the universal use of language, and the only common ground of all the languages.
The unique handwriting and recorded voices symbolize the value of individual and cultural differences. Through this socially engaged art project, Lee and Takauji addressed people's origins and coexisting differences.
Takauji and Lee’s collaboration project, "What Is Your Name?" was created at Marine Air Terminal, Laguardia Airport, through the ArtPort Residency Program by the Queens Council on the Arts and the Port Authority of NY&NJ from January to March, 2020. The project was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, they transported and completed it in their studio in the summer of 2020. It has been exhibited in The Immigrant Artist Biennial, The City College of New York, and Japan Society, NY.
Confession |
West Harlem 132nd Street Community Garden, 2020
Currently on view at Oeno Gallery Sculpture Garden, Ontario, Canada |
2020
Size: H62" W29" L72"
Medium: steel, stainless steel, composite wood
“Confession” takes the form of a reclining chair where visitors can lay down and relax to reflect upon and have an intimate conversation with themselves. It seems to be a nicely designed reclining chair at the first glance, and when they lay down on it, they will find themselves in reflection on a convex mirror that cannot be seen from other angles. While in an open public space, viewers can be absorbed in a private self-reflecting moment, juxtaposing the self-image against the surroundings such as trees in the garden and the sky: they are physically out in public, but mentally slipping into their internal visions. The concept of the work was inspired by the “Window” series.
Size: H62" W29" L72"
Medium: steel, stainless steel, composite wood
“Confession” takes the form of a reclining chair where visitors can lay down and relax to reflect upon and have an intimate conversation with themselves. It seems to be a nicely designed reclining chair at the first glance, and when they lay down on it, they will find themselves in reflection on a convex mirror that cannot be seen from other angles. While in an open public space, viewers can be absorbed in a private self-reflecting moment, juxtaposing the self-image against the surroundings such as trees in the garden and the sky: they are physically out in public, but mentally slipping into their internal visions. The concept of the work was inspired by the “Window” series.