Visitors hold a thread with both hands and hook it on the stylus of a record player. If they slowly rub it against the stylus, the stylus vibrates and the record player emits sounds. Visitors make an attempt at Operating Records with Tune, Intensity and Time in Mind (1973). The title of this work is an instruction.

Eight threads of different kinds hang on a wall, including piano wires. Thus, this work can be considered an original string instrument. However, Hitoshi Nomura described the handling of threads as “operating” rather than “playing”; he explained this work by regarding threads as recording media. There is unevenness on the surface of a thread, as there is a groove on a record. Stylus can read the unevenness and convert it to sounds. A recording device was originally formed into a cylinder shape and later changed into a disk shape. Then, he guessed what the thread shaped recording device sounds like.

From Tomotaro Kaneko, “Sounds that become completely different: Hitoshi Nomura’s “Chokaku-eizo” in the 1970s”

March 11th-17th, 2018　Art & Space Cococara

Exhibition
Hitoshi Nomura, Operating Records with Tune, Intensity and Time in Mind, 1973/2018
Hitoshi Nomura, Rape-Blossoms, Devil-Fish, Iron-y, 1975

Text Talk｜Hitoshi Nomura / Tomotaro Kaneko
Photograph｜Ryo Fujishima
Leaflet Design｜Tadao Kawamura

Leaflet
Hitoshi Nomura, “Around Chokaku-eizo”, 2018
Tomotaro Kaneko, “Sounds that become completely different: Hitoshi Nomura’s “Chokaku-eizo” in the 1970s”, 2018

1945　Born in Hyogo

1969　Completed the Graduate course in sculpture at Kyoto City University of Fine Art

Selected Solo Exhibitions (From 2000)

2000　“New Vision Navigator Harnessing Across America by Solar Car”, Chukyo University, Nagoya etc.

“Nomura Hitoshi – Genesis of Life: The Universe, The Sun, DNA”, Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Mito

2001　“Nomura Hitoshi – Transit/Reflect”, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota

2004　“Chroma & Chromatic”, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka

2006　“Hitoshi Nomura: An Introduction, Photo works 1975-92”, McCaffrey Fine Art, New York

“Nomura Hitoshi – Cosmo-Arbor”, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka

“In commemoration of Hitoshi Nomura, Seeing”, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka

2007　“Nomura Hitoshi – Chrono & Chroma”, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka

2008　“Hitoshi Nomura – Gravitational Shape and Flavor: The Sun, Meteorites and The Body”, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka

2009　“Nomura Hitoshi: Perceptions – Changes in Time and Field”, The National Art Center, Tokyo

2010　”Hitoshi Nomura: Making Time”, McCaffrey Fine Art, New York

2012　“Discover Hitoshi Nomura in Hong Kong”, Gallery 27, Hong Kong

2013　“Hitoshi Nomura: Body/Perception, or I Who Think I Am “I””, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka

2015　”Hitoshi Nomura: Contingency and Necessity”, McCaffrey Fine Art, New York

2017　”Hitoshi Nomura: Light and Earth Time”, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka

2018　”Hitoshi Nomura: The History of Space-Time – 3 Stages Accomplished by Cosmic Sensibility, or Infinitely Distant Memories”, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka

“PHENOMENON MUSIC” Box release

Selected Group Exhibitions

1968-69　Presented Tardiology, in which cardboard boxes collapsed under their own weight, “Kyoto City University of Fine Art: Graduation Works” (Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art)

1970　“The 10th International Art Exhibition of Japan: Between Man and Matter”, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo

1995　“Matters and Perception 1970: Mono-ha and the Search for Fundamentals”, The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu etc.

“Japanese Culture: The Fifty Postwar Years”, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo etc.

1996　“Photography and Beyond in Japan: Space, Time and Memory”, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

1997　“GRAVITY: Axis of Contemporary Art”, The National Museum of Art, Osaka

2002　“The Unfinished Century: Legacies of 20th Century Art”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

2003　“The History of Japanese Photography”, The Museum of Fine Art, Huston etc.

2004　TRACES: Body and Idea in Contemporary Art”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto / The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

2005　“Reconsidering Mono-ha”, The National Museum of Art, Osaka

2007　“ART ANTI-ART NON-ART”, Getty Research Institute Exhibition Gallery, Los Angeles

2009　“Waiting for Video: Works from the 1960s to Today”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

“MEDICINE AND ART: Imagining a Future for life and Love”, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

2013　“Re: Quest – Japanese Contemporary Art since the 1970s”, Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Korea

2015　“Re: play 1972/2015 – Restaging “Expression in Film ’72”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

2016　”ART1 2016: Stepping into Fresh Snow”, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka

2016-17　”The Universe and Art: Princess Kaguya, Leonardo da Vinci, teamLab”, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo / ArtScience Museum, Singapore

2017　”ASSEMBRIDGE NAGOYA 2017″, Minatomachi POTLUCK BUILDING, Nagoya

“JAPANORAMA: New Vision on Art Since 1970”, Centre Pompidou-Metz, France