Toshiko Nishikawa’s “Senbazuru” creates a thousand universes that put you at the center (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
The Vilcek Foundation Gallery
167 East 73rd St.
Wednesday – Saturday through December 9, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
212-472-2500
www.vilcek.org
www.toshikon.com
twi-ny slideshow
For “Senbazuru,” New York City-based Japanese artist Toshiko Nishikawa has turned the small gallery space at the Vilcek Foundation into a sparkling wonderland of one thousand orbs dangling at different lengths from the ceiling. Half of each sphere is a mirror, the other half translucent with hand-painted white lines, allowing visitors to see themselves in new ways, looking within and without, appearing clear and cloudy, both in and out of focus. Although you cannot touch the orbs that have been hung with straight wires, you are supposed to handle the ones with the twisted cords, spinning them, pulling them down, and bringing them right up to your face to peer inside. The orbs evoke the traditional one thousand paper cranes, which offer wishes of peace, health, and happiness, and are all connected through a network of wires, revealing the interdependence of human beings on one another while also showing each person’s limitless possibilities; when visitors walk into the blazingly white room, they immediately become replicated in every ball, one thousand representations of the self. “I want to make these one thousand orbs to help people realize how beautiful they really are. In my tiny universe within an orb, I hope to invite people to see themselves in it, and realize that each of them is this tiny, beautiful universe,” Nishikawa says in the free exhibition brochure, which features a gorgeous mirrored cover that re-creates the experience. “We all exist in this universe together, but it doesn’t mean that we are as small as particles of dust. It means that we each exist within the universe we create together. So everyone creates their own portrait by participating in this project, and each portrait is beautiful.” Nishikawa’s explanation of her work does tend to get rather New Age-y, as does Javier Peral’s music selection, but you don’t have to be all froo-froo yourself to enjoy this delightful experience.