Art looks East for inspiration (From Stroud News and Journal)

Art looks East for inspiration

AN exhibition of Japanese art and art inspired by the rich and vivid cultural traditions of Japan opens at the Stroud House Gallery this week.

The fourteen artists will be exploring everything from delicacy to zen and identity, using a variety of media, including painting, photography, textile, printmaking and installation.

Kazuko Kuroda, in Finding Soulmate, is inspired by a traditional Japanese story depicting a red string attaching each of us from our birth to our soulmate. One thousand suspended paper cranes, symbols of good luck, float in black space.

Naoko Miyazaki uses the volume of three-dimensional space in her work Photocopy Paper which is lit by resonating UV light. This expands ideas of linear structure and transparency by changing the quality of space, giving charm and a certain doubt to the solidity of architectural reality.

Shinto, the Japanese religion, suggests that every person has 108 egos.

Yumi Nozaki has taken this and added the holy sound of temple bells at New Year's Eve in the installation 108 Egos, which consists of 108 hand blown glass bowls; each identifies the changes we experience as we age.

Michael Turner is one of a number of Western artists whose work is represented in the exhibition, with Liberated Bonsai. This captivating project has just returned from the APC Galerie, Fribourg.

Also exhibiting are: Ichirota Suzuki, Asaki Kan, Noriko Matsumoto, Mara Terauchi, Misako Okuyama, Masako Tobita, Kevin J Pocock, Helene Coleman, Alex Ashton and Brian Watkins.

The exhibition runs from Wednesday, June 8 to July 8 at the Stroud House Gallery on Station Road.

The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday from 10.30am to 5pm or by appointment. Entry is free.