PORTLAND, Ore. — If you’ve visited Portland Japanese Garden, you know all about its beauty, but there’s more than meets the eye.
“I love just the feeling I get as soon as I walk through the gate into the garden. I just feel more present and connected with nature,” said Sarah-Kate Nomura, Portland Japanese Garden’s assistant director of exhibitions. “I also love that it's a place put up to really celebrate Japanese culture and the Japanese-American community here in Portland.”
On September 24, a new art exhibit opened at the Garden’s Pavilion Gallery. “Nature of Perception” features works of art by Japanese artist Takahiro Iwasaki.
“I hope that people feel a sense of delight and surprise, we know not everyone's coming here to see art so we're really excited to give them kind of something new that they weren't expecting,” Nomura said. “And I know something that the artist really feels as important about his work is to give people the chance to see things from a different perspective.”
Iwasaki is known for his architectural style. He spent the month of September in Portland as an artist in residence. The eye-catching centerpiece in the Pavilion Gallery is a 110-pound cypress wood sculpture depicting a mirror image of a historical gatehouse.
“This piece if it weren't hanging upside down could stand on its own without glue or nails because he was so precise about building it,” Nomura said.
The gatehouse is accompanied by two tectonic models in the gallery. All the pieces are inspired in some way by the film Roshomon. The models use books and bookmarks to make cranes out of the thread.
“He said that he views cranes as a metaphor for change. From one perspective, this could be almost like a skyscraper with a crane coming out of it. Building up the building.”
In the Tanabe Gallery near the Portland Japanese Garden’s entrance, is a piece Iwasaki created during his residency in Portland. It’s made entirely with fabric donated by people who work at the garden. Using the fabric, Iwasaki built a scene replicating the view of the city and Mount Hood from the garden.
“And then he used the fabric to make the sculptures on top. He actually pulled out threads from the fabrics. And you can see that he made a lot of the bridges that are so iconic in our city,” Nomura said.
“It's very important to us to share Japanese culture and have it be a two-way exchange. So we want folks to learn and be curious, and when we bring artists in residence we want them to also get to experience Portland and have a greater understanding of the city.”
Nature of Perspective is showing through December 4. To find out more about the exhibit, visit: https://japanesegarden.org/events/nature-of-perception/