Kazumi Tanaka was born in Osaka, Japan, relocated to New York beginning in 1987, and now lives in Beacon, NY. Employing both ancient and modern sculpting technics, Tanaka creates intricate and conceptually complex works that often involve childhood memories of Japan and address cultural differences between Eastern and Western lifestyles.
Tanaka created tiny musical instruments during her residency at MacDowell in Fall of 2015; work that continued a project called “Wind & Rain” begun that summer with a visit to the UNESCO World Heritage site A-Bomb Dome and the Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, Japan. Tanaka made a tiny unplayable piano using her own hair as strings for a show in Hiroshima to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. It was a testament to the effects of radiation on the human body, as well as a reaction to the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan. Tanaka became aware that the decisions made by a few people have consequences that effect the smallest and the weakest on our planet.
At MacDowell she built instruments incorporating small animal skulls, a seashell, wood, hair, and other materials that are eerily small and fragile, yet are also powerful and thought-provoking. For Tanaka, the instruments are a meditation on memory and loss. Another aspect of the instruments is that they can actually be played, and the artist has collaborated with several musicians to help explore creating sounds with them.
Tanaka created a series of coffee drawings during her 2015 residency, reflecting on her time immersed in nature, using these drawings to reexamine natural cycles to learn to accept the changes in our lives. She also developed an experimental interdisciplinary project called “Messenger.”
