Fujiko Nakaya

#ARTFORMS

Installation, intervention, sculpture, site specific, interactive,

#MATERIALS / MEDIUM

Gas, fog, kinetics, the nature

#Guiding interests

Dialogue with Nature and art, birth and death,

#Statement

Fog, like clouds, forms in response to atmospheric conditions and its existence is a process of constant interaction with the environment. It makes the visible things invisible, and the invisible visible, like the wind. The aesthetics of fog extends into all of my video works. My video sculptures are similar abstractions. To me, the originality of image is not as much a concern as is the
sensitivity of the medium to its natural and social environment.
// Video from Tokyo to Fukui and Kyoto Edited by Barbara J. London, 1979, The Museum of Modern Art

#Quotes

Nakaya continues her unique and intimate dialogue with nature, art and technology. Speaking of her work, the artist said, “I create a scene so that nature can express itself within. I am a sculptor of fog, but I do not attempt to shape it. The atmosphere is the mould, the wind, the burin.”
// BlainSouthern

I was interested in the process of being born and dying, the whole cycle. I was painting clouds, but then, this was the time in the 60’s when everyone was out on the streets. So, I didn’t want to paint clouds, I wanted it to interact with the environment and the actuality of society.
// Ken Miller interview with Fujiko Nakaya. Q. and A. May 27.14 – Fujiko Nakaya on Making Sculptures Out of Fog

#Exhibitions (selection)

2018 | Boston.us | Fog x FLO, The Emerald Necklace
2017 | Paris.fr | Niagara Reverb #07150, Piazza Centre Pompidou
2015 | Durham.uk | Fogscape #03238, Lumière Durham
2011 | Linz.au | #11060 Cloud Parking, Offenes Kulturhaus, OK Centrum
2008 | Singapore.sg | Fog Sculpture #48687 “Noontide”, Singapore Biennale
2005 | Riga.lv | Fog Chamber-RIGA #26422, The Natural History Museum, 
1998 | Bilbao.es | Fog Sculpture #08025, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Permanent Collection)
1976 | Sydney.au | Fog Sculpture # 94768 “Earth Talk”, 2nd Sydney Biennale
1970 | Osaka.jp | Fog Sculpture #47773 “Pepsi Pavillion”, Expo’70 
CV

Fujiko Nakaya

#Formation

Bachelor.A | Northwestern University, Evanston.us

#Bio

Lives and works in Tokyo.jp
1933 | Born in Sapporo.jp

#Links

Fujiko Nakaya | WEBSITE
IMAGES

#Texts

Julia Rocchi: Lifting the Veil / Talking with Fujiko Nakaya about Her Artistic Work at Philip Johnson’s Glass House. National Trust for Historic Preservation. July 2015

Alice Jones: Meet Fujiko Nakaya, the artist who makes sculptures out of fog: “The fact that it disappears is what I like most”. inews, March 2017, updated on September 2019