Fog Sculpture epitomizes the museum’s new concept

Driven by public demand for a place to display work by artists with Nagano Prefecture roots or ties, and supported by the sole television station operating in the prefecture, the museum opened as the Shinano Art Museum in 1966. In 1969, it was transferred to the prefecture and became the Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum. Nearly fifty years later, the aging facility was rebuilt, starting afresh in 2021 as the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, with a new concept.

Under the new ‘landscape museum’ concept, the aim was to create an open museum that would blend in with the surrounding scenery, with no barriers between inside and outside. A work from Nakaya Fujiko’s renowned Fog Sculpture series was acquired as a piece that would harmonize with the landscape and the museum. This is an amorphous sculpture created by spraying water under high pressure from special nozzles, resulting in an artificial “fog” that forms shapes. Shigehara shared her thoughts about the work with us.

“The collection of the former Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum consisted mainly of works by artists with ties to Nagano Prefecture, or works with the beautiful landscapes of the Shinshu region as their theme. This collection is still treasured today, and as a prefectural art museum, the museum continues to conduct research on the artists of Nagano Prefecture and support their creative endeavors. However, when the museum re-opened in 2021, policy shifted, and it was decided that we would collect important works in the history of modern and contemporary art from around the world, not just Nagano Prefecture.

Up to this point, the museum had little experience with contemporary art, in which works are created using a variety of techniques. Fog Sculpture treats the museum as part of the landscape and incorporates the mountains in the background into the work. I think of it as connecting the old and new collection policies, turning our attention to contemporary art while still respecting the original policy with its focus on Nagano.”

The Waterside Terrace—where the flow of water follows the line of the stairs from the rooftop to the first floor—was built below the Connecting Bridge that links the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum Main Building and the Higashiyama Kaii Gallery. As if in concert with the movement of this water, the fog spreads from the higher area to the lower area.

Fog Sculpture concept conveys a sense of watching the changing environment

The first Fog Sculpture was created in 1970. Nakaya participated in Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) which was formed by engineer Billy Klüver and Robert Rauschenberg with the aim of bringing together artists, engineers, and scientists to collaborate on fusing cutting-edge technology, science and art. Under the auspices of the group, she worked with physicist Thomas Mee to create an installation for the Expo ’70 Pepsi Pavilion in Osaka.

Using state-of-the-art high pressure pumps and fine-particle nozzles—which were new at the time—her Fog Sculpture produced fog from pure water. Since then she has created them in locations all over the world based on the experimental work shown at Expo ’70.

“Nakaya was originally an oil painter, but even in her paintings she was extremely interested in changing phenomena. She was particularly focused on processes that cause matter to decay and processes that cause matter to be created. Her father was physicist Nakaya Ukichiro, and I think that she was influenced by his view of the world. Likewise, I see Fog Sculpture as a work created with an eye on the ever-changing environment—the wind, rain, temperature, and humidity—and it makes these changes visible to us.”

Nakaya’s work reflects a perspective on the relationship between the environment and art that she has maintained since the 1960s, and it’s noteworthy that her works are called ‘sculptures’ despite the fact that they are fluid. When we think of the word ‘sculpture,’ we generally tend to think of sculptures made of heavy materials like bronze or stone, or of statues carved from wood. But this work makes us realize that these days, there are many different interpretations of the word ‘sculpture,’ and they are made using a variety of materials and techniques.

Fog Sculpture creates a fresh impression of the garden and the distant mountains

Shigehara studied Joseph Beuys during her student days

When we were discussing how to define ‘sculpture,’ Shigehara said that when she was a student, her thesis was on Joseph Beuys. Beuys, who advocated the concept of ‘social sculpture,’ practiced his art based on the concept that any human action, if performed consciously, can be considered a form of art.

“I had always believed that sculpture was something that elevates a space. I thought that sculpture can transform a space, depending on the shape of the object and how it’s placed. But as with Beuys's concept of social sculpture, I think the concept has changed significantly, as the materials have become more diverse. Fog Sculpture got me thinking again about the concept of sculpture. I didn't come up with a clear answer, but I think it’s reasonable to call something that visualizes atmospheric and meteorological conditions or something that occurs under certain conditions ‘sculpture.’ Sculpture doesn’t have to be confined to just physical things.”

The scenery changes depending on the wind and terrain. In some places a thin layer of fog advances, while in others the fog looks like puffy, burgeoning clouds.

An encounter between Marcel Duchamp and Matsuzawa Yutaka

Nagano Prefectural Art Museum’s project has been selected as one of the projects for the 2025 edition of the Collection PLUS public initiative in which the National Center for Arts Research (NCAR) collaborates with art museums across the country to activate the collections of Japan's national art museums.

The theme of the exhibition will be ‘objects,’ and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto will lend Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain and Bottle Dryer to be exhibited alongside works from the collection of avant-garde artist Matsuzawa Yutaka, who was born in Nagano Prefecture. We face the question of how to show the works of Duchamp—who gave titles to a readymade urinal and bottle rack to turn them into artworks—and Matsuzawa—who was driven by a mission to erase material objects, but also left behind many works that made use of objects. We are looking forward to this exhibition.

“Matsuzawa is a significant artist for our museum, and we mounted a solo exhibition in 2022. I want to bring objects to the surface in a way that goes beyond the contrast between the creation and the destruction that characterized Matsuzawa, a revolutionary artist who transformed simple objects into artworks, but also talked of doing away with objects.”

Many visitors to Joyama Park, where the Nagano Prefectural Museum of Art is located, are intrigued by the Fog Sculpture outside. In the summertime it's common to see the children playing in the fountains near the museum rush towards the museum as the fog forms. As a work that epitomizes the touted vision of Nagano Prefectural Art Museum as a “park with a roof,” Fog Sculpture is sure to continue to fascinate visitors to Nagano.

View of Fog Sculpture from the entrance level of the museum.

Notes

Nakaya Ukichiro (1900–1962) was a physicist and essayist. He was the first scientist to successfully create artificial snowflakes.

　
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