Yoshi Nakamura: A Pure Sound World
Yoshi Nakamura
Yoshi Nakamura has been an artist in residence at Wave Pool since August, 2020. As a result of the past 9 months of work, he will be presenting three related exhibitions in Cincinnati May 7th – June 26th, 2021.
Nakamura has a solo exhibition in Wave Pool’s Locker Room Gallery that is at its core an exploration of the borders and limits of communication between disabled and non-disabled people, long a focus of the artist’s work. Since graduating from Maryland institute College of Art (2020) and Tokyo University of the Arts in Japanese Painting course (2015) he has been curious about the relationships between sound, color and language. Since his first cochlear implant in 2012, Nakamura considers the striking ways that natural materials interact with sound technology, ultimately testing the viewer’s notion of visuospatial and audio-spatial language.
Additionally, Nakamura has a solo exhibition at Visionaries and Voices that builds on this idea. The unique piano instrument created for this exhibition, imitates a digital signal through his hearing aid. The phenomena of synesthesia temporarily created sound colors in his personal experience so he selects a pink color for the piano to which he attaches iPhone memos as a music score. Various sounds can be created using the 12 piano wire strings, the Ji (a Koto tuning bridge), and the underside of the piano. The empty space in the center of the piano creates sound waves and four people can also play the instrument by hitting strings with each other at the same time. Nakamura uses wooden and other natural materials reflecting his training as a traditional painter at the Tokyo University of the Arts. The two dimensional works in the space are musical scores, masks and sound paintings. Their purpose is to ask the viewer how communication is possible through sound and vibration. Yoshi believes that we can find our shared humanity and show our diversity connecting with each other through sound installation, instruments and scores. Nakamura hopes this exhibition will provide its visitors a unique opportunity to reflect on how others think, feel, and perceive.
Lasty, Nakamura is displaying a collaborative exhibition with Mark Harris and Froghole? in Wave Pool's The Welcome Project. This isan exploration of 木timberland木, a concert for the trees of Valley Park in Camp Washington, Cincinnati, that originally occurred in Fall 2020. Conceived by Mark Harris, the exhibition brings together Japanese artist Yoshi Nakamura with Froghole?, a Cincinnati band consisting of members Lura Bentley, Lauren Castillo, Ezra Cline, and Schuyler Smith. Nakamura is providing four sound sculptures made from chairs, copper tubing, feathers, stones and other materials and a series of visual scores for Froghole? to interpret. 木timbreland木 draws attention to a community’s enjoyment of local resources of plants, trees, and parks for fuller engagement with this “nature in the city” to improve quality of life in a neighborhood transitioning from industrial to artistic hub.