Onishi Gallery is proud to present Natsu in a solo show, Crystallization. Crystallization is Natsu’s third solo show at the Onishi Gallery. Her most recent work was also seen at the Onishi Gallery in the 2008 Asian Contemporary Art Fair.
Meteorite 001, 2008
Plastic beads, brass wire and sequins, 41x41x34 in.
Natsu’s numerous public installations have included Estnation at the Roppongi Hills Store in Tokyo in 2006, and Enchanting… at the Starbucks Coffee Ginza Store in Tokyo in 2008.
A chandelier artist, Natsu connects the worlds of art, fashion and modern urban life. Of her artwork, which is made of intertwined strings of beads, she says: “Beads are like atoms, the basis on which the entire world is formed. I put life into artificial and common plastic beads by stringing them with my soul… Creating my work reminds me of the most precious thing that I have forgotten since my birth here on earth.”
Seeing the act of stringing beads as a form of prayer and contemplation, Natsu explores the origins, structure and existence of the universe from a mythical point of view. Her chandeliers, no longer simply light fixtures, represent the idea of floating down from heaven and embracing the earth, dissolving the borders between them. “Transcending the finite edge,” she says, “there exists an infinite world of extreme Emptiness.”
Sparkling and formless, often subconscious, Natsu’s art bravely asks us who we are and where we are going, and examines how all things are connected and cyclically recurring in the cosmos.
Born in Japan in 1976, Natsu lives in New York. She earned her BFA at Joshibi University of Art and Design in Tokyo, and studied at the Parsons School of Design and the National Academy of Fine Arts in New York.