Tom Sachs: Tea Ceremony
Noguchi Museum
9-01 33rd Road, Queens, NY 11106
March 23 – July 24, 2016
The Noguchi Museum presents Tom Sachs: Tea Ceremony, the first exhibition at the museum to present work by a single artist other than Noguchi. Sachs presents distinctive variations on the objects and actions of chanoyu, or traditional Japanese tea ceremony. In the museum’s indoor/outdoor galleries, Sachs has constructed a tea house, furnished with unconventional takes on tea house atmosphere and aesthetics in the forms of lanterns, gates, a wash basin, a plywood airplane lavatory, a koi pond, an ultra HD video wall with the sublime hyper-presence of Mt. Fuji, and a bronze bonsai made of over 3,600 individually welded parts. Three additional installations feature Sachs’ Tea tools, a history of Tea as it developed out of Space Program 2.0: MARS, and a small retrospective of the artist’s work as a cultural hybridizer.
A number of tea ceremonies will be held throughout the exhibition, hosted by Tom Sachs and Johnny Fogg. To apply to be a guest at a tea ceremony, please complete the application process detailed on the Noguchi Museum website.
Tea Ceremony Manual, a 280-page artist’s book produced for the exhibition and published by the Noguchi Museum with support from Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Nasher Sculpture Center, will be available in early May.
Tom Sachs: Tea Ceremony will travel to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in expanded form as Tom Sachs: Space Program 3.0: Europa (September 16, 2016 – January 15, 2017) and to Nasher Sculpture Center as Tom Sachs: Tea Ceremony (September 9, 2016 – January 7, 2018).
Highashi (sweets), 2015. 4.75 H x 6.25 W x 3.25 D inches. Courtesy of the Noguchi Museum.
Chabako (tea utensils), 2015. 12.375 H x 14.25 W x 9 D inches. Courtesy of the Noguchi Museum.
Hishaku (Ladle), 2014. 15.5 H x 2.5 W x 2.5 D inches. Courtesy of the Noguchi Museum.
Shuki (Sake Set), 2014. 12.25 H x 14.25 W x 9 D inches. Courtesy of the Noguchi Museum.
Tom Sachs, Choko (round cup), 2014. Courtesy of the Noguchi Museum.
Chasen (whisk), 2015. 11.25 H x 3.75 W x 3.75 D inches. Courtesy of the Noguchi Museum.
