Artist Tom Sachs’ new exhibition at Long Island City's Noguchi Museum combines his signature madcap bricolage with Isamu Noguchi’s serene monolithic sculptures – an improbable intersection of space travel, tea ceremony, Americana and Noguchi.
‘Noguchi said, "To be hybrid is to be the future,"' says Sachs. ‘He was American and Japanese; he was of the ancient path as well as the future. My installation is built around his late-basalt sculptures, which in turn become the setting for it.’
‘Tea Ceremony’ is considered the sequel to ‘Space Program Mars’, an immersive show Sachs created at New York’s Park Avenue Armory in 2012, for which he subsequently created a film, A Space Program, on view at Manhattan’s Metrograph theatre. At the end of the film (spoiler alert), a pair of astronauts resolve their differences by engaging in a tea ceremony in a teahouse on the space ship. The teahouse, as well as other ephemera from ‘Space Program Mars’, became the basis for ‘Tea Ceremony’, which evolved over the course of about 18 months between Sachs’ studio and Noguchi Museum curator Dakin Hart. It is the first single outside artist show at the museum.
Sachs made each of the tea ceremony’s chanoyu or accoutrements, including over 300 tea bowls, whisks, a hand-washing station, gates, tea boxes, 'samurai' helmet, charcoal brazier and koi pond. A bronze bonsai sculpture made from over 3,500 cast q-tips, tampon cases, toothbrushes and enema nozzles is one of Sachs’s most elaborate constructs. ‘Tom is trying to transcend the verisimilitude that is popular in the art world right now,’ says Hart. ‘Tom doesn’t fake anything – he builds real things and everything here is fully-functioning.’ Periodically throughout the show, real tea ceremonies will be performed for visitors; but even those who don’t participate in a ceremony can imbibe a sense of zen and otherworldliness as they move through the human-scale exhibition, which winds across the museum’s first floor and garden.
‘The tea ceremony is about tranquility, harmony and respect,’ says Sachs. ‘I have elevated it or debased it to represent the values of my studio – part of respect is disrespect.’
‘Noguchi said, "To be hybrid is to be the future." He was American and Japanese; he was of the ancient path as well as the future,' says Sachs.
'My installation is built around his late-basalt sculptures, which in turn become the setting for it,’ says Sachs.
Guests are offered a bowl with hot coals to warm their hands. Pictured right: Tom Sachs collecting water for use in the 'Tea Ceremony'.
‘Tea Ceremony’ is considered the sequel to ‘Space Program Mars’, an immersive show Sachs created at New York’s Park Avenue Armory in 2012, for which he subsequently created a film. At the end of the film (spoiler alert), a pair of astronauts resolve their differences by engaging in a tea ceremony in a teahouse on the space ship
The teahouse, as well as other ephemera from ‘Space Program Mars’, became the basis for ‘Tea Ceremony’.
Sachs made each of the tea ceremony’s accoutrements, including over 300 tea bowls, whisks, a hand-washing station, gates, tea boxes, 'samurai' helmet, charcoal brazier and koi pond
The exhibition evolved over the course of about 18 months between Sachs’ studio and Noguchi Museum curator Dakin Hart. It is the first single outside artist show at the museum.
INFORMATION
’Tea Ceremony’ is on view until 24 July. For more information visit the Noguchi Museum’s website
ADDRESS
Noguchi Museum
9-01 33rd Road
Long Island City,
New York, 11106
-
Milan Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2025 highlights: Dolce & Gabbana to Emporio ArmaniDespite a reduced schedule, Milan Fashion Week Men’s arrives this weekend with plenty of intrigue, beginning with high-wattage shows from Dolce & Gabbana and Emporio Armani. Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss reports from Milan
-
Rio Kobayashi’s new furniture bridges eras, shown alongside Fritz Rauh’s midcentury paintings at Blunk SpaceFurniture designer Rio Kobayashi unveils a new series, informed by the paintings of midcentury artist Fritz Rauh, at California’s Blunk Space
-
New York restaurant Locanda Verde’s second outpost will transport you to a different time and placeLocanda Verde’s expansive new Hudson Yards osteria exudes a sophisticated yet intimate atmosphere overflowing with art treasures
-
What is RedNote? Inside the social media app drawing American users ahead of the US TikTok banDownloads of the Chinese-owned platform have spiked as US users look for an alternative to TikTok, which faces a ban on national security grounds. What is Rednote, and what are the implications of its ascent?
-
Architecture and the new world: The Brutalist reframes the American dreamBrady Corbet’s third feature film, The Brutalist, demonstrates how violence is a building block for ideology
-
Inside Luna Luna: the amusement park designed by artists lands in New York‘Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy’ – featuring rides by Basquiat, Lichtenstein, Hockney, Haring, and Dalí – has opened at The Shed
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next DoorThe Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New YorkViolet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American WestThe artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
