Sterling Ruby "Specters Tokyo" （Sogetsu Kaikan）

Sterling Ruby "Specters Tokyo"

Finished

Artists

Sterling Ruby

This exhibition is in conjunction with two other solo shows running concurrently at Taka Ishii Gallery (Terrada Art Complex II) and Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto, all featuring new work by the artist. The show marks Ruby’s first public installation in Japan, in which the artist reimagines Isamu Noguchi’s “Heaven” to explore the interactions between the living and the dead.

Known for his multi-disciplinary sculptural works, Sterling Ruby presents a new site-specific installation, which draws influence from kaidan, a genre of Japanese ghost stories originating in the Edo period and popularized by Greek-Japanese writer Lafcadio Hearn. Through the lens of Hearn’s vivid and visceral tales, the artist dives straight into stories of yōkai, a class of spirits and supernatural entities, from a predominately Japanese perspective, transforming Noguchi’s stage-like indoor garden into a spectral netherworld inhabited by faceless spirits.

Originating from his 2019 Desert X installation Specter, which consisted of a fluorescent monolith juxtaposed against the stark Californian desert, Ruby completely transforms the “specter” into a hauntingly figurative object that can be perceived across cultural contexts.

Ruby’s immense specters, made from heavily-worn, tattered textiles and other found objects, are suspended from the ceiling, floating weightlessly, and creating an immersive, almost puppet-like scene. The ghosts hold agrarian tools, metal armatures, and dried gourds, which act as direct and indirect references to Hearn’s yōkai as well as other Euro-American ghost folklore.