nach Japan (towards Japan) - 1999

Temporary installation. Inner-courtyard of Galerie Asian Fine Arts, Berlin
Soil, Grass, ca. 80x1200x1300 cm, 1999/2000

The garden installation cannot be entered, only viewed through a window from inside the gallery and through a gate onto the yard. nach Japan (to Japan) is a stylized memory of a landscape seen while travelling. In the tradition of early landscape gardens, it offers the possibility of travelling at home, either in retrospect or as a substitute.

"In 1998, at ›kunst und technik‹ in Berlin, three of her gardens could be viewed through three different windows. According to the titles, the viewer’s gaze traveled »Towards England, Towards China, Towards Japan«. Then in 1999, in the courtyard of the Berlin gallery ›Asian Fine Arts‹, she laid out an extended version of her installation »Towards Japan« which remained in place for over a year. The »Japanese« garden was viewed through a window of the gallery, a view across grassy hemispherical hillocks in light and shadow. The ambivalence of the dimensions had the distancing effect of an optical illusion. At times one seemed to be looking from above at a model of artificial foothills, at others it seemed more like a field of uniform bulges. And when one’s eye got caught between the light and dark of the hills, it was impossible to say whether the garden consisted of dry Astroturf or real live grass. All attempts to determine what it was and what it represented also evoked the opposite, preserving the piece’s sense of »the Japanese«."
(Peter Herbstreuth)