Art in the Garden: Katsura Imperial Villa

The Photographs of Ishimoto Yasuhiro

Lessons in Sustainability from Traditional Japanese Architecture

Art in the Garden Winter 2011

January 28 – February 20, 2011
Garden Hours; Pavilion
Included with Garden admission

Katsura Imperial Villa is a 17th-century masterpiece of traditional Japanese architecture. Its simple beauty and harmonious garden setting are captured exquisitely in more than 50 elegant black-and-white photographs taken in the 1950s by American-born, internationally acclaimed photographer Ishimoto Yasuhiro—and featured in the first Art in the Garden exhibition of 2011. The black-and-white images present Ishimoto’s attempt to liberate tradition through a contemporary point of view. The photographs will be on view in two rotations during the run of the exhibition.

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Daniel Fagereng: The “MA” in Modernism
The word “ma” in Japanese can be interpreted as the “space or interval between.” This concept is explored in a selection of ten masterfully crafted box constructions by Portland artist Daniel Fagereng, who studied the art of Noh mask carving in Japan during his ten years in residence there. The three-dimensional sculptures in wood and paper, based on Japanese ideas of space and craftsmanship complement the Katsura exhibition.

Master carpenter Dale Brotherton will demonstrate traditional Japanese joinery and other carpentry techniques in the Pavilion on February 12 from 10 a.m.-12 noon and 1-3 p.m.

Author Azby Brown will present the opening lecture Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan on January 28 at 5:30 p.m.

Photograph © Ishimoto Yasuhiro

Photograph © Ishimoto Yasuhiro

Photograph © Ishimoto Yasuhiro

Photograph © Ishimoto Yasuhiro