 |
 |
|
||||
|
|
||||||
 |
|
|
|
  
| |||
|
|
|
|
|
| |||
| TIF Central Courtyard: Yurakucho | |||
| |||
|
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Two tiny rock islands surrounded by a towering tsunami of steel and glass -- this is to experience the stone sculptures in the central plaza courtyard of the colossal Tokyo International Forum. They are the soul of this structure -- although as different as the heart is to the lung, these two works together form a living center for this otherwise gigantically overbearing building. "Ishinki" is a huge white marble boulder which is river-rock smooth. Over 3 metres long and 2 metres wide, it exerts a gravitational pull on passer-bys who veer off their busy trajectory through the bustling plaza to run their hand over the smooth cold stone. The sculptor, Kan Yasuda, has combined the beauty of Carrara marble from Italy, his adopted sculptural base, with a Zen-like minimal aesthetic, stemming from his native Japan, to form this monument to nature. It is often difficult to see "Hemisphere Circle" by British artist Richard Long because the stone sculpture is covered by the petit posterieurs of office girls and by salarymen eating their lunch-time bentos. Long, a leading figure in contemporary art, has made numerous works involving stone circles in natural settings as part of artistic pilgrimages through remote regions. This work, however, brings a magical circle of nature to Tokyo's urban center. Twenty-two large basalt rocks, cut in half, are arranged in a stone circle over 7 metres in diameter. Each rock, which is of seat height, conveys a hint of human scale and simplicity to a site of overpowering technology. The rocks, once rough and dirty brown, are now polished black by the buttocks of business. Stroll through the plaza sometime and run your hand over the monumental stone heart and catch your breath for a few minutes in the magic circle. If you're looking for a better perspective on time or trying to bring some perspective to busy urban life, there's nothing like a rock. by Peter Naumann |
TIF Central | ||
|
|||
 |
