How to cohabit with viruses: 2022 Laboratory of Forest Art

Now this is the time for my annual adventure with the art show by Laboratory of Forest Art. They opened their door on 18 September for 2022, when the mega Typhoon Nanmadol is encroaching from the west to Yokohama. Already on September 18 we had down pouring and the water level of Meguro River running in Setagaya, Meguro, and Shinagawa Wards of Tokyo reached high enough for flood warning. I happened to visit their forest just before the typhoon, when the sky was calm yet. The artists almost resigned for the fate of their installation under the coming storm while they put the final touch … er, no, I must say they were optimistic in a sort of enlightened way. Nature is nature, and we just think how to live happily with the Mother. This may have been their attitude. It could be a radical difference from their art in earlier days (; my posts on August 30, 2016, for example). The key here might be in Mr. Akatsuki Harada’s word. “Hi, Naomi. You know, this year’s show is like how to talk with Oak Wilt Disease.” Hmmmm. Anyway, better start showing first my photos of their installations for 2022 Laboratory of Forest Art (9/1/-10/23, 2022). The manifestation for each artwork can also be found in their Homepage.

Map for 2022 Laboratory of Forest Art. You can get the paper version at the entrance.

Noriaki Oka: Flower Path

Asayo Yamamoto: Drops of Moon

ASADA: Dragon’s Nest

Kana Tatekawa: Cry

Haruna Chikada: Camouflage of B

Concentrating Haruna

When we go through the avenue of
 wild Cardiocrinum cordatum …

Toshikazu Kanai: the Journey of Ruined Boat II

Kazuo Ishikuro: Dancing on a Stump

Ishikuro sculpted his work straight out of a stump of oak thinned due to the oak wilt. The sculpture is “sprouted” from the remain of the tree like suckers for healthy tree. We cannot move it an inch. He said “You know, normally for this size of work we move the material and stabilize the position of our hands to chisel. This time, nah. I myself rolled about the ground around the stump to have a good point. I devised a longer graver but still could not reach to the bottom.” Please enjoy how his chisel-work goes with the forest.

By the way, last year’s Helper Tower-Human is
well for 2022 (; my post on October 8, 2021).

Naoko Kobayashi: Yokohama Wild Grass Garden – Dream of Quercus Serrata

For Naoko’s concern,
at least Hylodesmum podocarpum and

Desmodium podocarpum this year are formidable there.

Youko Kiga: Meaning of Boundaries

Youko was busy for her final touch.

The “boundary” was harvested from here.
Destroying forest? Not so fast.
I’ll post a story about Trachycarpus
in Yokohama’s forest soon.

Yoshiki Takata: Regard / R(e)ga:r

Youichiro Yoshikawa: the Lordless Garden

And then, Kazuo Ishikuro’s “Giant Mori Mori (2021)” is
invading the Lordless Garden!
The spirit of reptile said
it would come and go until COVID mess settles in some way.

Noriaki Oka: Flower Path

Yeah, and there are lots of mushrooms
busy decomposing the fallen trees
this year in their forest …

Akatsuki Harada: Image of the Giant Tree

This year, the GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods received several grants to prepare, aka for forestry work, their venue for the show. They cut oaks infected by Raffaelea Quercivora fungus, lots of them. The City (; this forest is municipal property) hired pros to deal with larger affected oaks to avoid incidents by falling trunks and boughs (killing visitors, oh no …). The artists also treated not yet much succumbed trees with gallons of tree-drugs to rescue them from oak wilt. I think thanks to such year-long efforts their forest is now brighter with more sunshine reaching to the forest floor. Unlike these previous couple of years, it is not so frequent spotting over our head withered oaks in 2022 show. The atmosphere becomes healthier in the forest, I felt. More relaxed attitude of the artists now could be due to continuous and frequent conversation with the trees to save the forest. It could be very evocative for all of us under this day and age of Climate Change … with lots of visiting super-Typhoons!

The forest of the GROUP is as always next to Yokohama Zoorasia. Since there is no parking, a recommended access to the show is by bus. This year I suggest you come from Yokohama Zoorasia side, not from Hikarigaoka Housing Complex. Ms. Ryoko Iino and Mr. Katsuyuki Ishiyama, the secretariat of the GROUP, installed charming directions to the venue from Zoorasia. In addition the City opens Satoyama Garden Festival for Fall (until October 16) after 3 years of hiatus due to COVID-19. The main entrance for the Festival is on Zoorasia side. The most convenient transportation is a bus ride to Yokohama Zoorasia, from JR Nakayama 中山 Station, Sotetsu Tsurugamine 鶴ヶ峰 Station, or Sotetsu Mitsukyo 三ツ境 Station. (Timetables are here.) Get off the bus at Yokohama Zoorasia and proceed further along for about 400m to the direction of #2 Parking of the Zoo. On your right, there will be a small gate with the sign GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods. If you visit the place during weekends, many buses will take us to the North Gate of Zoorasia that is the closest to the art exhibition entrance. When you leave the terminal stop of Zoorasia North Gate, go back a bit along the bus road, and on your left is the sign for the GROUP. From there enter the forest. The road is a relatively wide walking promenade. Soon you can see a big banner over there saying “the Creation and Voice of the Woods 創造と森の声.”

Please find this signboard when you come from the bus stop.

Ms Iino’s directions show us the way by eyes.

Mr. Ishiyama’s giant pencil, with mashrooms

Here be dragons by Kimihito Zama.

If you find a problem in the site introduced in this post, the best contact address will be GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods.

https://morilab.amebaownd.com/
e-mail: morinokoe7@yahoo.co.jp


The city office which is in charge of this forest is

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North 北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016 

FAX: 045-316-8420