Museum of Contemporary Art TokyoKiba, Koto
Tada Minami—Still, Shimmering Light
First Tokyo solo show in 35 years for sculptor Tada Minami (1924-2014), spanning sculpture, chandeliers and architectural "light sculptures" across her 70-year career.
More in Tokyo
Look up in MOT's 19-metre atrium and Soar hangs over your head: stainless steel sheets welded into Tada's first hanging sculpture. It was taken down from Minamiashigara's city hall over earthquake worries, and her studio remade it for this show.
The roughly 70 works on B2F run in order, from 1950s oil paintings of electrical substations to aluminium slabs she hammered and torched into wrinkles so they would carry no fingerprints. Walk around Phase-Space 6943, acrylic plated into a mirror, and the room and you swirl across it. Then come the commissions: glass blocks from the Imperial Hotel's light wall, and rebuilt chandeliers. Chain-delier, the one that led to the Imperial Palace job, is made of washbasin ball chain. A sink-plug chain got her into the palace.
Yomiuri's reviewer found the pieces settle into a room and still entertain. Some commissions only appear as photos and sketches. Tickets are ¥1,600, free for primary-school age and under. November Fridays run until 20:00; closed Mondays, 13 October and 24 November.
Look for
Soar, hung in the atrium
Welded stainless steel sheets suspended high in the 19-metre atrium, remade for this show after the original was removed from Minamiashigara city hall over earthquake concerns.
Phase-Space 6943
Look for the acrylic form plated with aluminium into a mirror: the walls, floor, ceiling and people walking past swirl across its surface as you move around it.
The Frequency series
Large 1960s aluminium pieces scrunched into soft wrinkles, made by hammering and blowtorching the metal so no trace of her hand was left.
Chain-delier
A full-size remake of her 1963 chandelier for Matsuya's Ginza salon, strung from washbasin ball chain; it led to her Imperial Palace commission.
Zuiun, the Osaka cloud
Part of the Rihga Royal Hotel Osaka light inspired by a purple cloud, rebuilt with about 3,000 of its original crystal glass parts.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
With kids
Free for primary-school age and under; junior and senior high school students pay ¥640.
Also at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
On now nearby
Image credits
4
- The Beauty of Coolness: Edo-Tokyo Museum Glass Craft CollectionCourtesy of Edo-Tokyo Museum
- Suikoden: The Water Margin, Outlaws of the MarshCourtesy of Tokyo Station Gallery
- Masterpieces from the Itsuo Art Museum Collection: Buson, Go Shun, and the Art of TeaCourtesy of Suntory Museum of Art
- Museum of Contemporary Art TokyoKakidai, CC BY-SA 4.0