This petite kite is part of an edition of 300, from the January 20, 1998-September 26,1999 installation at the MCA Chicago. The installation consisted of 10,000 handmade kites which were suspended from the ceiling to form a single arch above the seating area in the café. The installation was the artist’s first solo museum exhibition. In the installation, Hashimoto redefined the screen painting of Japan through the assemblage of small paper ‘kites’ modeled after a traditional kite style from Northern Japan with imagery of white clouds on a sky-blue ground. Hashimoto took each of these repeated compositions and layered them into larger arrangements hanging them from the ceiling, resulting in an expansive and playful organic flowing wave. By grouping 10,000 individual kites, he created a sculptural landscape, simulating nature with an illusion of motion.
The Vitrine
An 11″ x 15″ UV filtering acrylic vitrine was fabricated with bubble free museum seams. The kite was reversibly mounted to an archival, white linen wrapped mount. The piece was elevated 3/4″ from the linen mount to give it a floating effect within the display. Given the small size, the vitrine was designed to be versatile, so it is deep enough for it to stand upright on a shelf or could be installed flush to a wall an integrated cleat.
Are you interested in an alternative approach to displaying a Hashimoto kite?
Read this article to learn more about another tabletop display: An Infinite Expanse of Sky, A Custom Mount for a Kite
