SAN MARINO —?The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens announced that it has commissioned California-based Japanese American artist Mineo Mizuno to create a site-specific sculpture titled “Homage to Nature.”
The monumental work, measuring approximately 16’ x 12’ x 13’, is installed in an area known as the Stroll Garden, just to the north of the Munger Research Center. The piece, crafted from fallen timber gathered in the forests of the Sierra Nevada, is framed by views of the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance.
“Homage to Nature” was unveiled in May and will remain on view for five years.
“‘Homage to Nature’ will quietly invite visitors to reflect on California’s native woodlands and the active threat posed to them by climate change,” said Robert Hori, the associate director of cultural programs at The Huntington.
The work explores the fragility of the Earth’s ecosystem, as well as the destruction of the forest and its potential for regeneration. By using reclaimed timber, the sculpture celebrates the beauty of wood in its natural state and emphasizes its potential as a reusable and renewable resource.
Using yakisugi(shou sugi), a traditional Japanese method of wood preservation known in the West as burnt timber cladding, the charred surfaces of the reclaimed timber in the sculpture speak not only to fire’s destructive power but also to its ability to reinvigorate the land. As a companion and response to the sculpture, a “fire landscape” will be planted on the opposite side of the path, to the south of the sculpture, to mimic new growth that occurs naturally after a fire.
“Homage to Nature” is the final installment in a series of works by the artist currently on view at The Huntington. Two of his ceramic compositions, “Komorebi – light of forest” and “Thousand Blossoms” (2020), situated along the grand hallway of the Huntington Art Gallery, engage in a playful conversation with a pair of nearby 19th-century terracotta figures.
Mizuno’s “Nest” on the Huntington Art Gallery’s loggia carries the motif of nature even further, using tree branches, ceramic, and other materials to create delicate bird nests, looking out on the vast landscape below.
Born in Japan in 1944, he draws inspiration from the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada foothills in Northern California, where he has lived and worked since 2016. He is widely known for his technical mastery of the ceramic medium, and his most recent works involve wood from fallen trees, exploring ideas of life, renewal, and the intertwined future of humans and nature.
The Huntington is located at 1151 Oxford Rd. in San Marino, 12 miles from Downtown Los Angeles. Visitor information: huntington.org.