New media artists from Kyoto to present shows this week

The public is invited to attend several events featuring Naoko Tosa and Ryohei Nakatsu, visiting artists from Kyoto, Japan.

The following events take place this week during the last week of instruction on the University of Hawaii at Hilo campus and at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center.

An artist’s talk featuring Naoko Tosa is scheduled for today at 3 p.m. in UH-Hilo room UCB100.

At 8 p.m. on Thursday, a projection mapping event, ‘The Sound of Ikebana,’ will be held on the back of the Performing Arts Center Building.

At 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday, the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center Planetarium will host ‘The Sound of Ikebana.’

Naoko Tosa and Ryohei Nakatsu are internationally acclaimed new media artists from Kyoto University. Tosa has traveled to eight countries and 10 cities to present her artwork. Her high-resolution digital video work entitled ‘Sound of Ikebana’ was projected on the public billboards of Times Square in New York as part of the Midnight Moment series in 2017. She studied as a Research Fellow at MIT Center for Visual Studies in 2003, and has her work in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Ikebana literally means “living flowers” or “giving life to flowers,” and is the name given to the long evolved, Japanese tradition of arranging flowers in asymmetrically balanced compositions that represent integrity, harmony, and character while conveying symbolic references to the four seasons.

Tosa uses a new medium — fluid paint, photographed with a high resolution, high speed camera — and then presents the imagery in slow motion, to embody the forms, colors and compositions of the Ikebana tradition.

For more information about Naoko Tosa, and previews of some of her work, visit her website at http://tosa.gsais.kyoto-u.ac.jp/sound-of-ikebana.