海景五輪塔日本海 · 北海道1986年|Five Elements: Sea of Japan, Hokkaido, 1986

Hiroshi Sugimoto 杉本博司

2011 · Optical-quality glass with black-and-white film · Asian Art

This contemporary work was inspired by a medieval Buddhist “five elements” pagoda designed to contain relics of the Buddha. These pagodas represent the constituents of the cosmos, which are typically identified as earth (square), water (sphere), fire (pyramid), wind (half-moon), and air (jewel shape). The water sphere of this pagoda contains a small photograph of the ocean, printed from a negative that the artist used in the creation of a series of large-scale seascapes.

Artist

Hiroshi Sugimoto 杉本博司

Date

2011

Medium

Optical-quality glass with black-and-white film

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto, in honor of John T. Carpenter, 2012