Installation Artist Etsuko Ichikawa at the Art Museum

Etsuko Ichikawa, Firebird, 2010, still shot of the performance “Firebird”
that premiered at Museum of Glass, WA
Photo credit: Peter Mumford

A new multi-media exhibition by Japanese artist Etsuko Ichikawa, entitled NACHI - between the eternal and the ephemeral -, opens Friday, Feb. 25 at the University of Wyoming Art Museum with a public reception from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Students from the UW Department of Dance will present a short dance performance.

NACHI – between the eternal and the ephemeral – features a series of large glass pyrographs (drawings created with molten glass on paper), thousands of suspended cotton threads, audio and a video projection that creates a unique environment within the gallery setting.

Ichikawa says the exhibition was inspired by the Kumano waterfall, Nachi, which has been a destination for worship and purification in Japan for 1,200 years. Ichikawa’s installation will create a space for museum visitors to experience silence and reflection.

Ichikawa will give an Art Talk at the museum on Monday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. and a Gallery Walk Through on Fri., Feb. 25 at 4:30 pm. Both events are free and open to the public. She is in residence in the UW Art Department for one week and at the UW Art Museum for one week to work with students and assist with the museum installation.