Events

Cultural Preservation for the Next Generation

November 15 - December 6, 2006

Cultural Preservation

Wednes­day, Novem­ber 15, 2006

6:30 pm~8:00 pm: Lec­ture
8:00 pm~9:00 pm: Reception

Venue:
Japan Soci­ety, 333 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017
www.japansociety.org / 212–832-1155

Tick­ets:
$10 ($8 mem­bers, $5 seniors & stu­dents)
Order tick­ets online www.japansociety.org or call the Box Office at (212) 715‑1258

Exhi­bi­tion:
Novem­ber 16 — Decem­ber 6, 2006
Onishi Gallery, 515 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001
www.onishigallery.com / 212–695-8035
Free

Pre­serv­ing our cul­tural his­tory, the art, archi­tec­ture and aes­thet­ics of our cities is one of the most impor­tant tasks any gen­er­a­tion attends to, espe­cially in an era in which many things feel dis­pos­able. The ancient Japan­ese cap­i­tal of Kyoto, with a his­tory dat­ing back over 1400 years, has a tremen­dous wealth of artis­tic mas­ter­pieces that were cre­ated orig­i­nally for tem­ples and shrines. These pieces were once widely viewed and enjoyed, but can no longer be shown pub­licly, due to dete­ri­o­ra­tion over time. In order to pre­serve this aes­thetic legacy and extend it to the next gen­er­a­tion, Kyoto Inter­na­tional Cul­ture Foun­da­tion has dig­i­tally repro­duced bril­liant sets of fusuma-e (slid­ing door art) mas­ter­pieces. In this pro­gram, internationally-acclaimed con­tem­po­rary nihon-ga artist Hiroshi Senju and Heather Hurst, 2004 MacArthur Fel­low for her recon­struc­tion work with the Mayan murals of Bonam­pak, will dis­cuss the impor­tance of cul­tural preser­va­tion, and what it means for our future. Mod­er­ated by Lau­ren Cor­nell, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Rhizome.org.

This pro­gram is co-sponsored by

With coop­er­a­tion from

Addi­tional sup­port pro­vided by

In-kind sup­port is pro­vided by

Recep­tion in-kind sup­port is pro­vided by

Japan Soci­ety

Founded in 1907, The Japan Soci­ety is a non­profit, non­po­lit­i­cal orga­ni­za­tion that brings the peo­ple of Japan and the United States closer together through under­stand­ing, appre­ci­a­tion and coop­er­a­tion. Soci­ety pro­grams in the arts, busi­ness, edu­ca­tion and pub­lic pol­icy offer oppor­tu­ni­ties to expe­ri­ence Japan­ese cul­ture; to fos­ter sus­tained and open dia­logue on issues impor­tant to the U.S., Japan and East Asia; and to improve access to infor­ma­tion on Japan.

Onishi Gallery

Onishi Gallery is located at the heart of the gallery town, Chelsea, NYC, which is one of the cen­ters of the world’s art and cul­ture. The gallery was founded by the direc­tor and artist, Nana Onishi. She has intro­duced many arts based on Japan­ese tra­di­tional indus­trial arts, mainly from Kyoto and Kanazawa, and has pro­moted prof­itable inter­na­tional cul­tural exchange between Japan and Amer­ica. The gallery pro­vides unique and orig­i­nal exhi­bi­tions and events by intro­duc­ing vari­eties of sig­nif­i­cant Japan­ese cul­ture and tra­di­tional indus­trial arts.

Hiroshi Senju

An internationally-acclaimed con­tem­po­rary nihon-ga artist. He was born in Tokyo, Japan. He com­pleted a Ph.D Pro­gram in Fine Arts at Tokyo National Uni­ver­sity of Fine Arts and Music in 1987. Senju has had a num­ber of solo shows and par­tic­i­pated in group exhi­bi­tions in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Some of his more recent exhi­bi­tions include Beauty Project at the Museum of Con­tem­po­rary Art in Lon­don in 1996, and a tour of four­teen Japan­ese cities of his acclaimed water­fall paint­ings. In 1995 he became the first Asian artist to receive an indi­vid­ual fine arts award at the Venice Bien­nale. Hiroshi Senju lives and works in Japan and New York.

Heather Hurst

An archae­o­log­i­cal artist and illus­tra­tor who, through recon­struc­tion, revives ancient paint­ings and draw­ings of the pre-Columbian Amer­i­cas. For her palette, she draws from many dif­fer­ent kinds of pri­mary mate­ri­als col­lected by arche­ol­o­gist col­lab­o­ra­tors crushed, fallen build­ing stones, field draw­ings, pho­tographs, topo­graphic maps, and func­tional inter­pre­ta­tions of struc­tures based on lab analy­ses of ceram­ics, soils, and arti­facts. She is a 2004 MacArthur Foun­da­tion recipient.

Lau­ren Cornel

Before start­ing with Rhi­zome in May 2005, Lau­ren worked as cura­tor, writer and arts admin­is­tra­tor in New York. In 2004, she worked in the Andy Warhol Film Project at the Whit­ney Museum. Before that, she served as Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Ocu­laris, a non-profit media arts orga­ni­za­tion based in Brook­lyn. Lau­ren also worked as a youth media edu­ca­tor and orga­nizer, at Global Action Project and T.R.U.C.E. Her writ­ing on con­tem­po­rary art, exper­i­men­tal film and new media has been pub­lished in Time Out New York, Nylon, Syn­op­tique, on-line arts resources such as Rhizome.org and exhi­bi­tion cat­a­logues. And, she has curated screen­ings, exhi­bi­tions or per­for­mances at venues includ­ing The Con­tem­po­rary Cen­ter for Art War­saw, The Liv­er­pool Bien­nial, The Kitchen, Andrew Kreps Gallery, Foxy Pro­duc­tion, Par­tic­i­pant, Inc and The Insti­tute of Con­tem­po­rary Art London.

Ohichi Gallery