SANTA CRUZ, CA--When it opens in the spring, the new National Government Center in downtown Saitama, Japan, will become one of the busiest pedestrian corners of the world, with some 50,000 people crossing the plaza each day. As they traverse the area, inevitably, many of those people will raise their wrists and glance downward to check on the time.
Artist Nobuho Nagasawa, who is installing a public work in the plaza, hopes that by the time she's finished, a glance downward will evoke a more primordial sense of time. Nagasawa's project, commissioned by Japan's Ministry of Construction, covers approximately 15,000 square feet of the plaza with an iridescent lunar calendar that is periodically sprayed by a mist fountain.
"The genesis of this proposal was to question the concept of people's perception of time and space in the contemporary urban world," said Nagasawa, an assistant professor of art at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Time is a theme of ongoing interest to Nagasawa, whose works have been exhibited around the word, from Prague, Czech Republic, to Aachen, Germany; to Mexico City; to New York and Los Angeles.
Nagasawa describes her pieces as "site-specific" installations because they reflect the history and environment of their place. She never conceives an idea until she has visited a site and then, through her hands, she builds works that are part history, part poetry, and undeniably stunning.
Of the Saitama project, Nagasawa says, "Throughout ancient civilizations, the moon was one of the important factors used to measure time. One of the ancient customs that still remains in the Japanese calendar is a day to observe the moon. However, contemporary urban Japanese people, who only look at their wristwatches, have forgotten how to experience time as they would in this ritual."
The fountain that Nagasawa incorporates in her project evokes another ancient Japanese method of timekeeping, one that dates from the seventh century. "Water, dripping from a series of vessels, was used to keep track of time," Nagasawa explains. "I chose to use the element of water in the form of a mist fountain to add another dimension to the perceptual experience of the plaza."
Images of the 28 phases of the moon are set into the ground in a pattern signifying the cycle of the moon. The material used to make the moons includes a glow-in-the dark phosphor that maintains an unearthly blue glow long into the night with a material developed and manufactured especially for this project. "As dusk approaches, the plaza will become a magic carpet, as blue light glows from within the moon, while luminescence rises from the mist fountain," she said.
A 1993 installation in Prague, a replica of the 12th-century Charles Bridge in sandbags and barbed wire, invoked multiple layers of the region's history, emphasized by a Bohemian crystal hourglass placed alongside the piece. (The first person to turn the hourglass was Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel.)
A light sculpture she created for a station on Los Angeles's Metro Red Line evokes the history of the area, which served as an arrival area for immigrants much like Ellis and Angel Islands. Nagasawa conceived a light sculpture as a symbol of the safe end of a journey. When the station is constructed, modern commuters may see the light as a friendly beacon of homecoming as well. An award-winning work for an L.A. library recalls the nation's history of book censorship and at the same time, with hand-carved stools spelling out "imagination," pointed to the positive function of literature in society.
Another piece due for completion this summer is a collaboration with a landscape artist for the McEnery Children's Park in downtown San Jose, California. Nagasawa designed wind vane sculptures in the form of insects. The idea, she says, was inspired by the park's proximity to the Guadalupe River. "These insects, dragonflies in particular, are important monitors of river ecology," she explains. "And the dragonfly is considered to be one of the most ancient species, having survived since the Jurassic period." Nagasawa hopes the sculpture will "reawaken our relationship to the wind, sun, and water--the fundamental source of life in this urban park."
Through a commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Nagasawa has been working with a landscape architect on improvements to an 860-foot-long public access area along the Islais Creek near the I-280 freeway in San Francisco. "The design recognizes the work of indigenous peoples as well as more recent waterfront industries that shaped the current identity of the site," she explains. Nagasawa discovered that the site once supported shipbuilding and coconut-refining industries. To evoke these themes, she has created a suspended-steel sculpture outlining the form of a ship. That project is due to be completed sometime this year.
Another project due to be completed this year is in the city of Stockton. Derivi Castellanos Architects are overseeing an innovative overhaul of the Arch Road and Highway 99 interchange. Nagasawa is creating an artistic vision for the project, which includes a sound wall, retaining wall, and freeway interchange bridge. Wanting to evoke the industrial and agricultural history of Stockton, as well as the current function of the space, Nagasawa developed a collage of abstract patterns inspired by various transportation modes--historic wagon wheels, tractors, contemporary industrial tools and parts.
These are only some of the many pieces the artist is immersed in over the next few years. Other projects are in the works in San Francisco, Seattle, and Japan. Nagasawa will also be featured in a soon-to-be-released book titled "Contemporary Artists in the Bay Area," compiled by editors from the Los Angeles and San Jose Cultural Affairs Departments.
#####
Editor's note: A number of Nagasawa's works can be viewed on the Web at
RSS