Kainuma, Miki

"Everything in Between: Isamu Noguchi’s Space"

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Major: International Studies

Minors: Photography and French

Senior; College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

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Abstract

Isamu Noguchi is a well-known multi-talented artist with famous works in public art and architecture, gardens, ceramics, sculptures, lighting designs and the like. Although the art world often recognizes his work as the work of a Japanese man, to fully understand the complexities and dynamics of his work his racial identity as a mixed Japanese-American man needs to be recognized and analyzed. In this paper, using a number of his works as case studies, the way that the artist navigated being ‘hapa,’ half-white and half-Japanese, will be explored. The essay explores the liminal space that he created for himself as himself and for others as an artist.

Class: Honors 301

Professor: Laura Kina

Director of Critical Ethnic Studies