Winston W채chter Fine Art Etsuko Ichikawa Jomon Vitrified
Artist Etsuko Ichikawa spans her life between Japan and Washington State. Her personal life and her artwork are driven by these places and their shared history and culture. In 2011, the devastation caused by the incident at Fukushima prompted her to question the impact of nuclear energy and waste on all living things and the environment. The resulting artwork was her first film, Echo at Satsop. The following year while visiting the Hanford nuclear site she was given a piece of vitrified waste. This “gift” of a “safe” object intensified her need to speak to the uncertainty of our environmental impact and what we will leave for future generations. Her latest installation artwork, JOMON Vitrified, uses ancient Kofun tomb structures and Jomon pottery as inspiration. By creating her own moss covered Kofun and uranium glass vessel sculptures, Ichikawa questions how ancient cultures chose to mark their landscape, how far we have come as a society since then, and what imprints we leave that cannot be undone. “On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit my home country of Japan, causing a massive tsunami that led to the collapse of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. This tragic event made me shift my values as I witnessed how the people of Fukushima lost their loved ones and homes in the blink of an eye. Ever since, the lingering radiation has been effecting people’s lives and environment beyond Japan, and it will continue to do so for many generations.Living afar from Japan, I experienced this event in the state of Washington which houses the Hanford nuclear plant and the vitrification plant. Hanford is known for the Manhattan Project, and is the site for the B Reactor where the plutonium was manufactured and used for the nuclear bomb Fat Man that detonated over Nagasaki in 1945. Hanford is recognized as the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States, and the vitrification plant is designed to clean the radioactive waste, which is believed to take millions of years to naturalize.Creating the replicas of Jomon vessels in uranium glass is to remind us what the Jomon people left us from 16,000 years ago, and in contrast, what we are leaving for future generations.Through JOMON Vitrified, I would like to further discuss the meaning of life, loss, and decay.”
206.652.5855
jessica@winstonwachter.com
www.winstonwachter.com
Kofun are megalithic ancient tombs in Japan that are constructed between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD. Many of the Kofun have distinctive keyhole shaped mounds, which are unique to ancient Japan. There are a total of 161,560 Kofun remaining throughout Japan.
206.652.5855
jessica@winstonwachter.com
www.winstonwachter.com
JOMON Vitrified is a multi-media installation about seeking meaning in our time through examination of the radioactive decay of u r a n i u m g l a s s . Th e installation measures approximately 4 feet high x 16 feet wide x 8 feet deep. It i s c o m p o s e d o f a keyhole-shaped ‘Kofun' mound made of straw wattles that will be entirely covered by moss. Approximately 20 uranium ‘Jomon’ glass vessels will be placed throughout the mound, and they will be illuminated by ultraviolet light from below.
The Jomon period in Prehistoric Japan starts from as early as 14,500 BC to about 300 BC. Jomon means “cord-marked� and the pottery style characteristic of the Jomon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of the wet clay. This pottery dated to around 16,000 years ago is perhaps the oldest in the world.
206.652.5855
jessica@winstonwachter.com
www.winstonwachter.com
Uranium glass is glass which has had uranium, usually in oxide diuranate form, added to a glass mix before melting for coloration. The proportion usually varies from trace levels to about 2% by weight uranium, although some 20th-century pieces were made with up to 25% uranium. Uranium glass was once made into tableware and household items, but fell out of widespread use when the availability of uranium to most industries was sharply curtailed during the Cold War in the 1940s to 1990s.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2017 JOMON Vitrified , Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA (forthcoming) 2016 JOMON Vitrified , San Juan Islands Museum of Art, Friday Harbor, WA (forthcoming) Traces , Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, WA 2015 Act of Drawing , Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO HAKONIWA Project , Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA 2014 Act of Drawing , Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA Echo at Satsop , New Media Gallery, Jack Straw Productions, Seattle, WA Glass Pyrograph on Paper , ponyhof artclub contemporary art, Munich, Germany 2013 Echo at Satsop , Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA 2012 Tracing Light , Waterhouse & Dodd, New York, NY Pyrograph & Aquagraph , TASTE at Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA 2011 Pyrograph & Aquagraph , Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA NACHI - between the eternal and the ephemeral , University of Wyoming Art Museum, curated by Susan Moldenhauer, Laramie, WY 2009 Glass Pyrographs , Randall Scott Gallery, Brooklyn, NY Moment/Memory , Function+Art, Chicago, IL Pyrograph , Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA Trace , Randall Scott Gallery, Washington D.C. 2008-2009 Traces of the Molten State , Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA, curated by Stefano Catalani 2008 Ephemeral Eternal , Davidson Contemporary, Seattle, WA 2007 Fluid Moment , Gallery 4Culture, Seattle, WA 2006 breath-memory , SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA 2004 Funiki: Floating Feelings , Viveza Gallery, Seattle, WA 2003 Shadow Installation , Kirkland Arts Center, Kirkland, WA Kokoro, In-Between, Kirkland Performance Center, Kirkland, WA Kokoro, In-Between, Gallery Mohri, Tokyo, Japan SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2016 NOddIN 4th Exhibition , Claska Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (forthcoming) Northwest Art Now , Tacoma Art Museum, curated by Rock Hushka, Tacoma Art Museum’s Chief Curator and Juan Roselione-Valadez, Director of the Rubell Family Collection, Tacoma, WA (forthcoming) 2015 soft universe , 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan Objects in Flux , Museum of Fine Arts Boston, curated by Emily Zilber, Boston, MA NOddIN 3rd Exhibition , Claska Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2014 One Thousand Questions - Hiroshima to Hanford , Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA NOddIN 2nd Exhibition , Claska Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2013 The Horizontalists , Lawrence Fine Art, East Hampton, NY The Horizontalists , Studio Vendome, New York, NY Paper Unbound: Horiuchi and Beyond , Wing Luke Asian Museum, Seattle, WA 2012 Elles: Featuring Northwest Women Artists , SAM Gallery, Seattle, WA Spring Exhibition , D’ART Gallery, Hong Kong 2011 Seattle as Collector , Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA Bloom & Collapse , SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA 2010 Winter Haiku , Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2009 Elusive Elements , Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA, curated by Kathleen Moles Visions of Eternity , PressItOn Art Gallery, Miami, FL Abstracted Remains, Tarryn Teresa Gallery, Los Angeles, CA West Coast Drawings, Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2008 The East and The East, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan Dualities, curated by Jess Van Nostrand and Barbara Shaiman, Cornish Gallery and SAM Gallery, Seattle, WA Marked with Chad Brown, curated by Jerry Misko, Dust Gallery, Las Vegas, NV 35th Anniversary Cerebration, SAM Gallery, Seattle, WA 2007 Postcards From the Edge, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY Mark, Randall Scott Gallery, Washington D.C. START, PRISM Contemporary Glass, Chicago, IL Vestiges with Jeff Wallin, Function+Art, Chicago, IL Full Spectrum, PF Galleries, Clawson, MI Filter, curated by Michelle Kumata and Heinrich Toh, Kirkland Art Center, Kirkland, WA 2006 Contemporary Sculpture, Catherine Person Gallery, Seattle, WA nooksandcrannies with Julie Custer and Marc Dombrosky, SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA (curatorial) Hardline Organics, SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA Impressed, Arts Council of Snohomish County, Everett, WA 2005 Raw & Refined, Seattle Center, Seattle, WA, curated by Jess Van Nostrand Found in Translation, TORA Gallery, Mount Vernon, WA SOIL 1995-2005: A Retrospective, SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA Urban Art Installations, Woolworth Building, Tacoma, WA Unearthing, SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA 2004 She Stole the Show, Capitol Hill Arts Center, Seattle, WA Members Exhibition, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA Artist in Residence Exhibition, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA 2003 Bemis Fall Art, Bemis Building, Seattle, WA LELA, The Modern Art Gallery , Los Angeles, CA Members Exhibition, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA
SELECTED PERFORMANCE AND THEATRE PROJECTS 2014 Glass in Motion , Glass Performance, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA 2013 Glass Pyrograph on Beach , Glass Performance, Center on Contemporary Art, Shilshole Bay Beach Club, Seattle, WA 2010 FIREBIRD , Glass and Dance Performance, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA 2007, 2006 Cuckoo Crow , Scenic Design for Degenerate Art Ensemble, The Moore Theatre and Bagley Wright Theatre, Seattle,WA, and REDCAT, CalArts Theater, Los Angeles, CA 1990 Golden Natto , Scenic Design, Theatre Tiny Alice, Tokyo, Japan FILMS AND VIDEOS Radiating Echoes - What is Beautiful? , short film, producer/director, film & edit by Ian Lucero, 2016 (forthcoming) One Thousand Questions , project video, producer/director/performer, video & edit by Kyle Porter, 2014 Echo at Satsop , short film, producer/director/co-editor/performer, film & edit by Ian Lucero, 2013 Glass Pyrograph on Beach, documentation video, producer/director/performer, video & edit by Kyle Porter, 2013 2100° / 451°, short film, featured artist, produced by the Anthropologist, directed by Alistair Banks Griffin, 2011 FIREBIRD, documentation video, producer/director/performer, video & edit by Ian Lucero, 2010 Traces of the Molten State, installation video , director/videographer/editor, music by Tobin Buttram, 2008 breath-memory, documentation video, featured artist , video & edit by Ian Lucero, music by Golden Climax Twins, 2006 DEAI, documentation video, featured artist, video & edit by Joe Randazzo, footage from residency at Museum of Glass, 2005 SELECTED AWARDS AND RECOGNITION The Clark Hulings Fund, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2015 Artist Support Program, Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, WA, 2015, 2013 Individual Projects Grant, 4Culture, Seattle, WA, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2005 Grants for Artist Projects, Artist Trust, Seattle, WA, 2012, 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York, NY (for NACHI exhibit), 2011 National Endowment for the Arts, Washington DC (for NACHI exhibit), 2011 New Glass Review, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, 2010, 1996 CityArtist Projects Grant, City of Seattle, Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Seattle, WA, 2010, 2006 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY, 2009 Americans for the Arts Funding, Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia, WA, 2009 Special Projects Grant, Bellevue Arts Commission, Bellevue, WA, 2008 Media Literacy Scholarships, 911 Media Arts Center, Seattle, WA, 2008 Visiting Artist Program, Hot Shop at Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, 2008, Jon and Mary Shirley Glass Scholarship, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA, 2006 EDGE Professional Development Program Scholarship, Artist Trust, Seattle, WA, 2005 George Tsutakawa Memorial Scholarship in Sculpture, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA, 2002
RESIDENCIES Mighty Tieton Residency, Tieton, WA, 2013 John H. Hauberg Fellowship Residency, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA, 2011 Visiting Artist Program, University of Wyoming, Art, Dance, and Theatre Departments, Laramie, WY, 2011 Jentel Artist Residency, Banner, WY, 2009 PONCHO Artist-in-Residence Program, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA, 2003, 2002 SELECTED PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS Chrysler Museum of Art Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington Washington State Public Arts Commission King County Portable Art Collection Seattle City Light Seattle Children’s Hospital University of Washington Medical Center Microsoft Sumitomo Corporation of America PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS Frederickson Elementary School, Puyallup, WA, 2012 SELECTED PUBLICATIONS Objects in Flux , Exhibition Catalogue, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 2015 Marika Yoshikawa, Collect & Connect , published by Arts & Books, August 2015, page 212-217 Tracing the Light, Exhibition Catalogue, published by Waterhouse & Dodd Fine Art, 2012 Etsuko Ichikawa: NACHI - between the eternal and the ephemeral , exhibit catalogue, University of Wyoming Art Museum, 2012 New Glass Review 31 , Corning Museum of Glass, 2010, Page 22 Studio Visit volume 2 , published by The Open Studios Press, 2008 One Shot 2006 , published by Visual Codec, April 2007 SOIL 2006 , essay by Greg Bell, published by SOIL, 2006, Page 18-19 Raw & Refined , Exhibition Catalogue, 2005, Page 14-15 Maiko Uchida / Kasumi Iida, The Place Where You Can be Yourself , Kobunsha, March 2005, chapter 2, page 89-91 LELA , Exhibition Catalogue, 2003, Page 15 APEX in L.A., Exhibition Catalogue, 2002, Page 130 Michi Konoshita, Daily life which has work , Vingtaine, Fujingahosha, July 1998, Page 161-164 Maki Akuta, My work place is a world , Oggi, Shogakukan, November 1998, Page 261-264 Machiko Nagai, The portrait of Japanese women living abroad Part 2 , Futabasha, 1996, Page 119-128