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Masterpiece

Nobi — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:48:53 +0000

Is it presumptuous to call your own work a masterpiece? Maybe…but many artists have work of their own that they secretly admire and lament the lack of interest from others. Let’s admit it, being self-centered, attention seeking and lacking emotional control are common traits found among the artists. I think most artists, whether famous or not, have had moments when they felt overwhelming satisfaction and excitement with their creations.

This image of a piece called “Madonna of the Altar” which had been made of plaster and sugar in 1996 (or maybe it was 1997) is another “graveyard image” I recently found on the internet. I remember being almost satisfied (very Japanese way to appreciate your own work) and quite excited when it was finished. The piece used to sit in the back room of my old studio at 68 Jay Street in Brooklyn, and my neighbor who liked to call it a masterpiece often brought visitors from other part of the world just to show the piece. The piece was the culmination of series of sexually charged and sacrilegious sculptures that I made in the ’90s, and it is one of the few pieces that I still like.

In 1998, then New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani began the most aggressive crackdown on go-go joints and porn stores. Harmoney Theater, New York Dolls, the doors of the bars in Tribeca that I frequented to look for models were closed for good. In a way, it was the saddest event that took place in New York City since I had moved here.

Graveyard

Nobi — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:49:01 +0000

I don’t have many images of my sculptures since I have neither documented nor archived my work well. So it’s strange to find the images of my old pieces on the internet. Countless archives in the internet are updated at an amazing rate, but it seems there is a graveyard for old information.

I think the piece was called “Uncircumcised Penis in Water,” but I cannot remember the exact year it was made. In the early nineties, I used to ask visitors to my studio to have their body parts cast for my sculptures. Tongues, breasts, navels, penises, feet….. they all had their own stories.

A Fine Line

Nobi — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:54:04 +0000

“This is not art, this is porn.”

This has been said so many times that I’m not sure if it really matters.

Does the fact the subject in the film is a porn star make this anything less than great art?

Sacred Order

Nobi — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:13:29 +0000

Sculptor Isamu Noguchi often had mentioned that marriage and having children are not options for sculptors. I adored his idea of freedom and tried to join the ‘Order’ when I was young. I lost my path 10 years ago and am now a father of two kids. I don’t regret my choice but cannot agree more with Noguchi today.

Art is…

Nobi — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:27:33 +0000

Art is about wasting time and money. Any good artist knows this, and most people who are not artists, but believe that they know about art do not realize it.

1999

Nobi — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 19:40:47 +0000

* click the small arrow on the bottom left of the player to start the movie

5 tons of granulated sugar
50 kilograms of fragrance oil
The result…
An old downtown neighborhood in Tokyo was scented for a several block radius during the one month period of the installation, and the scent remained for more than a year in the former rice market which housed the installation.

ー今はなき、佐賀町エキジビットスペースでのインスタレーションの様子ー