Originally posted at my other blog
Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkin, at the Benesse House beach.
Back in February, or was it March, I made a 10 day trip around Japan's middle kingdom. One of the stops, was Naoshima of Kagoshima Prefecture, famed for being an art-island.
One of the houses in the Art House project. I've packed away my Naoshima books (I bought so many!) so I can't refer to them to find the specific names. I know there's the internet, but somehow I'd like to flip through the catalogs and read up more information that way.
Another Art House project; this time James Turrell's (who also has an installation in the Chichu Art Museum) Darkside of the Moon. One of my favourite installations. I have a soft spot for art pieces involving shadows and darkness, as cliche as that sounds.
It was a cloudy day when I went, and for short periods of time, the rain decided to have sporadic bursts around the island, and it was a bit of an ordeal trudging about in the winter wind. But there was something very calming about the island, and the weather. It was full of people, but not crowded and never once did I feel that there were too many people in one place. Walking about the island and discovering places not on the map, visiting the Art Houses, tip-toeing through the two main museums, I felt that I could live here and that I'd love to live here. One day I'm going to come back (next year?) and spend a night or two. What's the island like at night? How would the outdoor installations feel in the darkening sky?
Sadly my film photos of the island are all gone! They got mixed up with my Miyajima photos so no lovely shots of the teabowl (I had to climb the pedestal -- shhhh! -- to get the shot I wanted!) or other secret photos!
The full set of photos is
here.
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