PRESS RELEASE
University art museum to open exhibition of innovative Japanese art Oct. 21
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art to exhibit Maywa Denki's "nonsense" machines through Nov. 20
EUGENE, Ore.—(Oct. 3, 2005)—The University of Oregon’s Department of Art, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, and the John G. Shedd Institute of the Arts in Eugene will co-present the West Coast premiere of “Maywa Denki” beginning Oct. 21.
The project consist of three major events including a month-long exhibition of “Nonsense Machines Naki” and a public lecture at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, as well as a live performance at the Shedd’s Jaqua Concert Hall.
The exhibition will feature the artists’ unique sculpture, musical instruments, personal adornments, tools, recorded music, video, audio and toys. The technologically fascinating “products” and “instruments” are produced by president Nobumichi Tosa and his brother, Masamichi Tosa, at the Maywa Denki factory in Tokyo, Japan.
“The museum exhibition will run concurrently with a showing of 18th and 19th century, Edo period, Japanese prints providing museum visitors with a uniquely contrasting exploration of Japanese art of the past and present” said Lawrence Fong, associate director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.
Maywa Denki was originally a small supplier of vacuum tube era electronic parts to large companies like Matsushita and Toshiba. The company went bankrupt in 1979.
In 1993, the Tosas, sons of the original founder, reestablished Maywa Denki as an “art unit.” As a hybrid electronics company (“denki” means electrical machinery), the Tosas started building wacky and whimsical noise machines that are part guitar, drum and piano on the one hand; part fish on the other. They titled their first product series, “Naki,” which loosely means fish tool. One of the instruments from this series is titled, “Koi-Beat,” and is a noise machine modeled after the fish-shaped flag, “Koi-Noburi,” flown every May 5 in Japan on Children’s Day.
“Maywa Denki is a wildly successful and completely unique Japanese art phenomenon,” said Kate Wagle, professor of art and department head. “We believe the excitement and spectacle of this exhibition and live performance will interest a broad audience of all ages. We suspect that even those who may not yet consider themselves interested in ‘art,’ will find this event to be irresistibly innovative and exhilarating all at once.”
Maywa Denki’s first live performance, or “product demonstration,” took place in Paris in 2003. The artists will appear live for the first time on the West Coast at the Shedd’s Jaqua Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 18. The project also includes a public artist talk and reception at the art museum on Nov. 16.
The project is made possible by the contributions of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and Yoko M. McClain. Additional support comes from the University of Oregon’s Department of Landscape Architecture Kyoto Study Program, Lundquist College of Business, and Center for Asian and Pacific Studies.
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located at 1430 Johnson Lane on the University of Oregon campus. The museum is open Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Thursdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admissions fees are adults, $5; seniors (62 and older) and students (high school and non-UO college with ID), $3. Admission is free to museum members, students, faculty and staff members with ID, and children 13 and under. The museum offers “pay-as-you-wish MusEvenings!” every Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and free admission to everyone the first Friday of each month.
Tickets for the Nov. 18 performance are available through the Shedd Ticket Office, 434-7000 or 868 High Street, and are $25, $20 and $15. Group and youth (high school and younger) discounts are available. The John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts is located at the corner of Broadway and High Streets in downtown Eugene.
For more information, contact Katie Sproles, the art museum’s public relations and marketing coordinator, at (541) 346-0942 or ksproles@uoregon.edu.
Contact: Katie Sproles, (541) 346-0942, ksproles@uoregon.edu
Source: Lawrence Fong, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, (541) 346-0971, lmfong@uoregon.edu
Kate Wagle, Department of Art, (541) 346-3610, kwagle@uoregon.edu
Link: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu
UO Department of Art, http://art-uo.uoregon.edu/
The Shedd Institute, http://www.theshedd.org