Fujiko Nakaya: Fogscape

Fujiko Nakaya participates at Sapporo International Art Festival with the installation Fogscape #47412, in which a cascade of fog flows down the courtyard wall of the Sapporo Art Museum.

Fujiko Nakaya presented the world’s first fog sculpture at Expo ’70 in Osaka, blanketing the dome of the Pepsi Pavilion with man-made water fog. Since then Nakaya’s fog sculptures are found in art museums, parks, theaters, and public squares around the globe.

In addition to her work with fog, Nakaya has long been regarded as a pioneer of video art in Japan. Since 1971, she has created video artworks based on the theme of communication.

Fujiko Nakaya, <i>Fogscape #47412</i>, 2014. Courtesy of Creative City Sapporo, International Art Festival Executive Committee — Fujiko Nakaya, *Fogscape #47412*, 2014. Courtesy of Creative City Sapporo, International Art Festival Executive Committee

For SIAF, Nakaya has prepared Fogscape #47412, an installation in which a cascade of fog flows down the internal courtyard wall of the Sapporo Art Museum. Interacting with the wind, fog gradually fills in the courtyard, overflows and engulfs the museum building.

Borders disappear and inside/outside become integrated. Fog begins to decode the signs of its surroundings; the form and volume changing instantaneously and perpetually in response to the atmospheric and environmental conditions. Fog Sculpture is a probe of this dynamic interchange innate in nature. Visitors physically experience this dynamism of nature and will be prompted to rediscover our relationship to nature and environment, and to reconsider the state of the arts of the modern city today