Naoshima ... the Art Island! (Part II)

Okie doke... today.. let's get back to Naoshima. I'll take you through Chichu Art Museum today.

Chichu Art Museum


All visitors to Chichu Art Museum have to stop at the ticket center to purchase tickets before hand. Since they allow only a certain number of guests into the museum at a time, they distributed tickets that specify which time you are allowed to be in the museum. We got a 1.30 p.m. lot and while waiting, we had a brief orientation about the site by the museum staff. One adult ticket costs 2,000 yen. Quite pricy, but rather understandable.

if you are to work here, I guess you should have a uniqeness.
This ticket person has such an interesting hairstyle, short on one side, then along on the other!!
Photographing is prohibited on the site, so we shall go through this art museum with attached links from the museum's official website.

bird eye view of Chichu Art Museum
Chichu Art Museum was established in 2004 and is a place to rethink the relationship between nature and people. The quietness of Seto Inland Sea's nature blending in with the suitable art forms and spacing is what stimulates our intellectual and sensation.

The museum is separated into 3 sections for displaying artworks of Claude Monet, Walter De Maria and James Turrell, all of which are installed permanently at the site. The building is designed by the famous Japanese architecture, Tadao Ando, having all three stories built underground.

I really love how the space was designed, played and used in the whole museum. I loved the white space in Claude Monet's exhibition. It's amazing seeing how natural sunlight can have such a powerful effect in a room that has no lightbulbs. Ando was, indeed, clever to use that to bring out the attractiveness of Monet's water lily works.

My most favourite displays went to James Turrell's though. This was my very first time to see his work. It's amazing how light and space can create so much curiosity among us.

"Open Field," 2000, fluorescent light, neon tube
(Credit: www.chichu.jp)
"Open Sky," 2004, LED, xenon lamp
(Credit: www.chichu.jp)
For "Open Field" work, you can actually walk into that blue screen. It was like walking into an empty space, as if you were floating. So amazing! For "Open Sky", the color in that room alters as the sun rises and sets.

It's really interesting to see how art and design can trigger our visual sensation.