Tag: naoshima

Benesse House Museum Outdoor Works and Park

Posted on by Hijiri

Took me a bit, but this will be my last post from Naoshima. Looking back, I really loved everything and I still have to see the Art House Project and the Naoshima Bath “I heart Yu” so I’m definitely going back there…

Today, I will share some photos I took from the Museum outdoor works and Benesse House Park work — I wanted to spend a little more time! Never enough time.

George Ricky Three Squares Vertical Diagonal , 1972-82:

These were moving by the wind and you can touch them and move them around, too.

Always changing by the weather, by the people… very interesting…

Walter De Maria Seen/Unseen Known/Unknown , 2000

We saw a huge work of Walter De Maria work at the Chichu Art Museum, this seemed like a piece from the work…

Shinro Ohtake Shipyard Works: Cut Bow , 1990

Shinro Ohtake Shipyard Works: Stern with Hole , 1990

These were side by side, right by the private beach. Love the atmosphere and backdrop with the art…

When we got to the Park area, we had a nice lunch and explored a little bit inside of the Park building (wish we had more time) — on the way, we passed this beautiful wall of art, I was so drawn to it. The colors, thousands of mirror-like squares, the patterns… it was really breathtaking. I want a wall like this in my house… someday. :)

Teresita Fernández Blind Blue Landscape , 2009

George Rickey Peristyle V , 1963-95

Another work from George Rickey and these were moving by the wind as well. Very cool and soothing to look at.

and this has been used to represent Naoshima art in a lot of places so I wanted to see it in person.

Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin , 1994-2005

and here it is! Photos taken by me :)

It’s placed in a little pier itself and it looks so awesome! I don’t know why, but it feels very summer vacation to me… doesn’t it?! :)

I will be back, Naoshima!

Benesse House Museum

Posted on by Hijiri

I posted about the Benesse House, but today, I want to share my experience from the Benesse House Museum. Again, all designed by the amazing Tadao Ando. I couldn’t take any pictures inside, but there is this outside area where I could take some photos…

The artworks you see here are by Hiroshi Sugimoto Time Exposed , 1980-97

There were so many things to enjoy this area, my friend and I spent good amount of time and we could easily spent more…

His photographs are serving as a time capsule for a series of events in time… with the waterlines at different times…

The walls end and you see ocean in between the walls — but notice the ocean waterline and the artwork waterline? It aligns! So I guess you are seeing the “current” in here… so very awesome… Also, I couldn’t take a photo, but from here, you can see a tiny something on the little island… We’d been wondering and later we found out that it’s also his same series waterline work hang it on the island! So that aligns with all the work as well. Amazing.

Like this one. This is the other one we found — what a discovery! We were pretty excited.

Even stairs are designed great…

Another art you can enjoy in between the walls are these boats installation (yellow and black — do you see?). These are exactly the same from the painting in the museum, when you look at the painting and look outside, you see the same art. How awesome! right?

Really enjoyed visiting! I attended a little tour also, and that was very cool, too.

Benesse House

Posted on by Hijiri

I want to post about the Benesse House we stayed at — great experience all around! There are few parts where you can stay, but we stayed at the Museum room which was a rare and awesome experience. We enjoyed the museum in the middle of the night, too :)

A Kaiseki dinner at the Museum restaurant Issen. I love kaiseki — it is work of art indeed. So. very. pretty. and goooooood.

A Basquiat work:

After the dinner, we went up to the Oval area. Only hotel guests at the museum or the oval can visit this area with a little cable car. These blue doors are to the hotel rooms, there is an oval shaped water fountain in the middle and the top is also oval shaped, opened to the sky.

The sky, the reflections, the lighting… it was beautiful…

Next morning, we went up to this area again for another look. A view from the little cable car you take…

Morning Oval — it looks so different!

You can go up and walk around and look down…

Cool surroundings: fountain.

The rectangle area is like a painting, but that’s a glass wall and crosswalk.

I highly recommend visiting/staying there if you ever have a chance! Thank you to my best friend, Mitchy, too!!! Love you! xoxo

Cultural Melting Bath: Project for Naoshima

Posted on by Hijiri

After the Chichu Art Museum visit, we went to experience the “Cultural Melting Bath: Project for Naoshima (文化大混浴)” by Cai Guo-Qiang. It is one of the outdoor works at the Benesse House Museum and you could only experience on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 4pm for an hour by reservation only. Plus, you need to be a hotel guest at Benesse House, which we stayed at one of the Museum rooms (it is IN the museum! You can walk around the museum in the middle of the night!) and so I was lucky to be able to enjoy this work. And yes, this artwork allows the visitors to take an actual bath! (Please have your bathing suit ready.)

Taifu rocks from China and an American-made Jacuzzi tab are arranged according to Feng Shui, and five kinds of medical herbs added to the Jacuzzi water.

It’s a cultural melting bath so you will be in the Jacuzzi with some other people (6 people max.)…

The square looking thing is the Jacuzzi tab…

A view from the tab…

and you can walk right to the beach…

A view from the beach…

It was actually 90-something degrees out and so I thought we would pass out from the heat in the hot tab, but it was actually a nice and cool experience. Being in the Jacuzzi was nicer than being outside, which our head was… I think this would be perfect in Fall or Spring :)

There is another artwork in Naoshima called “I Love Yu” by Shinro Ohtake that I couldn’t go this time, but it’s a public bath house — the whole bath house is an art! and of course you can take bath. You can enjoy the artwork from outside, from inside and from the bath tab. I must go next time… :)