Kishio Suga (菅 木志雄, Suga Kishio) (born 1944), is a Japanese sculptor and installation artist currently living in Itō, Shizuoka, Japan.[1]
He is one of the key members of Mono-ha, a group of artists who became prominent in the late 1960s and 1970s. The Mono-ha artists explored the encounter between natural and industrial materials, such as stone, steel plates, glass, light bulbs, cotton, sponge, paper, wood, wire, rope, leather, oil, and water, arranging them in mostly unaltered, ephemeral states. The works focus as much on the interdependency of these various elements and the surrounding space as on the materials themselves.
During this period, two artists who taught at the university were important influences on Suga. Yoshishige Saitō encouraged Suga and other students to take a deconstructive approach to modernism and Euro-American-centric art theory. Another influential teacher was the artist Jiro Takamatsu, whose illusionistic paintings and sculpture were central to the development of the Tokyo art scene at that time. Suga's early work reflected this approach. In his first solo exhibition, at Tsubaki Kindai Gallery, Tokyo, in November 1968, Suga presented Space Transformation (1968) (転移空間), a freestanding structure of red-painted wood that gave the illusion of a stack of boxes collapsing under their own weight.[2]
At the same time as Suga was producing these illusionistic paintings and sculptures, he was already shifting to an engagement with raw materials in works such as Layered Space (1968) (積層空間), a transparent acrylic box containing layers of sawdust, cotton, ashes, plastic dust, and soil.[2]
In the second half of 1968, this exploration of raw materials, ephemerality and space gained recognition as a broader movement. Lee Ufan presented his first work juxtaposing rocks and steel plates. At the 1st Kobe Suma Rikyū Park Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition (第一回野外彫刻展), Nobuo Sekine presented Phase—Mother Earth (位相—大地), a cylindrical hole in the earth, 2.7 meters deep and 2.2 meters in diameter, with the excavated earth molded into a cylinder of exactly the same dimensions.[3]
Suga came to articulate his ideas in terms of hōchi (放置, release), an act that highlights the reality of mono (もの, things) and their interdependence with the surrounding jōkyō (状況, situation, context, or expanse). In his ongoing investigation of "situation" and the "activation (アクティベーション) of existence," Suga has produced many installations that are emblematic of the Mono-ha approach.[3]
Infinite Situation I (window) (1970) (無限状況), consisted of two blocks of wood of different lengths propping open adjacent windows in a staircase at the Trends in Contemporary Art exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, in 1970.
In 1971, Suga created Law of Situation (状況律), the artist placed ten flat stones in a line on a 20-meter-long pane of glass and floated it on the surface of a lake in Tokiwa Park, Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
In the State of Equal Dimension (1973) (等間体) is made up of two tall, forked branches that support a length of rope at four points along a corner of the gallery wall; each end of the rope is tied to a rock that rests on the floor.
"In the State of Equal Dimension (Tōkantai)", 1973 Branches, rope, stone Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe
Law of Multitude (1975) (多分律) consisted of an undulating expanse of transparent plastic sheeting laid on some dozens of concrete columns, each one topped by a single stone.
"Law of Multitude (Tabunritsu)", 1975 Dimensions variable overall, vinyl, stone, cement blocks Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe
In addition to his site-specific installations, Suga also makes smaller assemblages that display on the wall or floor. Suga variously ties, binds, stacks, cuts, glues, paints, tapes, wedges, leans, peels, nails, screws, carves, bends, and folds these materials into their current forms.
In 2008, Kishio Suga Souko Museum opened at Itamuro Onsen Daikokuya, Tochigi prefecture. This museum houses a large selection of Suga's indoor sculptural works and several outdoor sculpture gardens designed and installed by Suga.
His work has received renewed attention in the United States following his inclusion in Requiem for the Sun: The Art of Mono-ha, at Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, in February 2012. This exhibition was the first survey of Mono-ha in the United States, and was followed by a solo exhibition at Blum & Poe in November 2012, which was his first solo show in the United States.[5] Suga's work was also featured in Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant Garde at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2012. In 2016, Suga was commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation to resurrect one of his site-responsive works from the 1970s at Dia:Chelsea.[6]
Collections
Kishio Suga's work is in the collection of numerous museums, including:
Kishio Suga was awarded the 11th Shell Art Prize in 1967, the Grand Prize at the 5th Japan Art Festival in 1970, and Mainichi Awards in 2016. He teaches at Tama Art University, Tokyo.