Navigation
30’ x 24’ x 26’
Fabricated steel and fabric
2015
2015 FSP/Jerome Fellow
Artist Statement
Originally conceived as a tribute to the 20,000+ Tsunami victims who lost their lives in Northern Japan in 2011, the sculpture gradually has transformed to be about my hope for the future of people and the planet. When I started, my aim was to make a wave the same height as the actual Tsunami (30’, the height of the smallest in the set), to give viewers a feel for the scale of the waves. As the project developed and my ideas about the construction and materials changed, the meaning and message of the piece changed, too. I was unsuccessful in my search for donations of one particular material that I thought would best represent the victims of the disaster. As a result, my thinking about the sculpture began to be more open and the design more stylized and formal. Incorporating the abstract imagery of a constellation, the steel frame design evolved into a wave meeting the night sky, and I named it “Navigation. My work often deals with environmental issues that may lead to catastrophes, civilization in crisis, and the destruction of nature. We live in a moment in which choosing a sustainable environmental path is urgently needed. While being poetic and beautiful, “Navigation” also represents a desperate desire for right mind. Where ocean meets the night sky speaks to a desire to bring the beautiful planet back, the one our distant ancestors gazed upon, smelled, and felt. My hope is that people who are attracted to the sculpture might share in the same wish.
Asako Nakauchi
Born: Kochi, Japan, 1964
Resides: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Education
MFA, University of Minnesota, 2000
BFA, University of Minnesota, 1996