The Installation of Etsuko Ichikawa's NACHI Begins

Etsuko Ichikawa lays out the template for the installation of 

NACHI - between the eternal and the ephemeral - in the Art Museum's galleries.

Photo courtesy of the UW Art Museum

Last week, Etsuko Ichikawa arrived in Laramie from Seattle to spend two weeks working with drawing and dance students in the Art Department and Theater and Dance Department and to install a major new work that she has created for the University of Wyoming.  For the next week, she will be in the museum installing NACHI - between the eternal and the ephemeral -, a massive work that is comprised of 6 14-ft tall pyrographs (drawings created with molten glass), 11 miles of suspended twine, and video and audio components.  The work was inspired by the Japanese waterfall, Nachi, after Ichikawa's visit there a few years ago.

Ichikawa's residency and exhibition has been funded in part by an anonymous donor, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Advisory Board of the UW Art Museum Endowment, the National Advisory Board of the UW Art Museum, Wyoming Public Radio, and the Wyoming Arts Council through the Wyoming State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The exhibition opens on Friday, Feb. 25 at 6 pm.  An improvisational dance will be performed by UW dance students.