The OAP Sculpture Path is presenting two sculptors, Noboru Tanaka and Masanori Nishimura, in an open-air sculpture exhibition.

In the 1960s, Noboru Tanaka created stone sculptures without giving away the actual mass of the material. Tanaka brings forth dignified vitality from unique forms inspired by nature, while undermining the massive quality of black granite. His newest works, which include hollow forms with only surface layers remaining, will be exhibited in the exhibition.

Masanori Nishimura’s “The Schoolchild Umbrella/Raining Light,” a giant umbrella with countless holes through which light can pass through, and “House of Moire=Symbiosis of Moire,” mesh sheets of a greenhouse-like structure overlapping to produce a moiré effect, are just a few examples of his hands-on work he produces concerning the environment, and the delicate balance and constant tension between man and nature.

The artwork by Tanaka and Nishimura gazes at nature while crossing between representation and phenomenon, and resonates with the environment and landscape of the Sculpture Path while giving us a new sense of fun and the joy of discovery in our day-to-day lives.


Artists’ Statements

• Noboru Tanaka
I have been making work with the themes of rain, bugs, flowers, wind, water, and trees. This time, I thought about rain and the development of nature while sculpting.

• Masanori Nishimura
The cities we live in and the nature around us are sources of the banal and everyday, but even in our immediate surroundings, the form and phenomenon of nature, delicate and naïve, can move us to enthrallment. The blooming of flowers, the appearance of unknown weeds, glittering daylight streaming through the tree leaves, and the beautiful contrast between the earth, sky, and airplane clouds at sunset. However, those transient shapes and phenomena always disappear. They cannot be reproduced. The curiosity that springs forth from pursuing a desire is the root of the concept of my work, and I attempt to draw nature’s versatility while using artificial materials.