ماریکو موری
森万里子
Мори, Марико
Tom Na H-Iu

source: scaithebathhouse

As one of Japan’s representative artists, Mariko Mori works internationally and is currently based in New York, her work featured in numerous solo exhibitions in art museums and galleries abroad.

Mori’s professional career began in the mid-nineties, attracting attention for photographic works in which she herself features in the futuristic portrayals of young women in Japanese urban settings. This was followed by a shift to a more profound and spiritual perspective, and in recent years Mori has been creating large-scale, highly finished three-dimensional works. Every new work by Mori adds to her reputation. Major solo exhibitions have been held at the Prada Foundation in 1999, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2002, and the University Museum’s Koishikawa Annex at the University of Tokyo in 2004. Most recently Mori garnered wide acclaim for her representative work Wave UFO, exhibited at the 2005 Venice Biennale.

Tom Na H-iu, both the title of the exhibition being held at SCAI THE BATHHOUSE and the title of Mori’s work, denotes a spiritual transmigration site of the ancient Celts. The Celts believed that this was where souls spent considerable time before being reborn. Inspired by legends such as these and by history, in which people in ancient times constructed “standing stone” monuments in many different locations, Mariko Mori has created a new monument for contemporary times to symbolize life and death.

Tom Na H-iu is a three-dimensional glass work almost 3 meters in height. It is networked to the Super Kamiokande neutrino observatory operated by the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, enabling it to interact and respond when the observatory captures a neutrino. On detecting a neutrino, such as those emitted by stars in our galaxy as they die in supernova explosions, Mori’s work emits beautiful light.

Tom Na H-iu represents a modern standing stone that conveys the death of a star, meanwhile hinting at the birth that follows – as if to suggest to the viewer that our existence is in resonance with the universe. When we view this work that emits peaceful light amidst darkness, we can project ourselves into the darkness and gain a sense that we are standing quietly in the flow of eternal time. It has been some time since Mariko Mori unveiled a work of this scale in Japan, but Tom Na H-iu is certain to enhance her reputation further.
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source: deitch

The works in this exhibition continued Mariko Mori’s interest in a fusion of art and technology and the idea of universal spiritual consciousness. Drawing from ancient rituals and symbols, Mori uses cutting-edge technology to create a striking vision for the twenty-first century.

Ancient people built eternal monuments, or “standing stones,” to guide the return of transmigrating spirits to our world. “Tom Na H-iu,” 2005–6, Mori’s nearly fifteen-foot-tall version of a standing stone, is a contemporary memorial to the cycle of eternal life. Its dramatic monolithic glass shape contains an interwoven interior of intelligent LED lighting. The lights are networked to the Super Kamiokande neutrino observatory in Japan, enabling them to respond when the observatory captures a neutrino, such as those emitted by stars as they die in supernova explosions. Tom Na H-iu thus visualizes the internal light of dying stars but also signifies the potential birth of another star, memorializing the eternal flow of life.

Two additional sculptures in the exhibition related to special stones used by people in Japan in the mid-Jomon era (3000–200 BC). “Flatstone,” 2006, is named after the stones found in structures believed to have housed ancient shrines. The entrances of these early buildings were located so as to receive sunlight on the winter solstice. Mori used twenty-two ceramic stones to re-create the narrow shape of the shrine entrance, which widens into a circular ceremonial area. In the center of the stone arrangement was an acrylic cast of a Jomon ceremonial vase.

“Roundstone,” 2007, is based on the stones usually found near the fireplace of ancient homes. They were most often paired with standing stones and likely used to invoke 
a bountiful harvest. Mori’s Roundstone is an opalescent lucite orb, which is a reflective monument to the passing of time.
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source: skny

Mariko Mori is an internationally acclaimed artist. Her practice explores universal questions at the intersection of life, death, reality and technology. Her works has been acquired by museums and private collectors worldwide. Mori gained recognition for her interactive installation, Wave UFO, which debuted at Kunsthaus Bregenz, in Bregenz (Austria) in 2003. The installation was subsequently shown in New York (USA) with Public Art Fund, Genoa (Italy), and was included in the 2005 Venice Biennale (Italy). It was also featured in “Oneness”, a survey of Mori’s work that opened at the Groninger Museum (Netherlands), then traveled to the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, in Aarhus (Denmark), the PinchukArtCentre, in Kyiv (Ukraine). Oneness was also exhibited at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, in Brasília, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (Brazil) in 2011.

Mori’s recent large sculpture includes Sun Pillar (2011). This sculpture was the very first installation realized for the project of Faou Foundation in the Continent of Asia in Miyako Island of Okinawa in Japan with the mission to bring attention to Earth-consciouness. Faou Foundation was founded by Mori in 2010 as an educational and cultural non-profit organization to dedicate a series of harmonious, site-specific permanent art installations to honor the nature of six habitable continents. The upcoming Faou Foundation permanent installation entitled Ring will be installed over a beautiful waterfall at Visconde Mauá, in the city of Resende, not far from Rio de Janerio, Brazil in 2016.

Mori’s solo exhibitions have been exhibited throughout the world, including Royal Academy of Arts, in London (United Kingdom), Japan Society, in New York (USA), Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo (Japan), The Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tokyo (Japan); The Brooklyn Museum of Art, in New York (USA); The Museum of Contemporary Art, in Chicago (USA); The Serpentine Gallery, in London (England); The Dallas Museum of Art, in Dallas (USA). Several renowned museums have presented Mori’s solo exhibitions, as well as acquired Mori’s works in their collections, including Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris (France); The Prada Foundation, in Milan (Italy); The Museum of Contemporary Art, in Chicago (USA); The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in Los Angeles (USA). The PinchukArtCentre, in Kyiv (Ukraine); The ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, in Aarhus (Denmark), The Guggenheim Museum, in New York (USA);The Israel Museum, in Jerusalem (Israel); The Museum of Modern Art, in New York (USA) have Mori’s works in collection.

Mori has received various awards, including the prestigious Menzione d’onore at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 (for “Nirvana”) and the 8th Annual Award as a promising Artist and Scholar in the Field of Contemporary Japanese Art in 2001 from Japan Cultural Arts Foundation.

Mariko Mori lives in London, New York and Tokyo.