Fujiko Nakaya: When Fog Becomes a Medium

EAT, is an organization launched by Robert Rauschenberg and engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer in 1967 its aim was to foster effective cooperation and collaboration between artists and engineers under corporate sponsorship. Artists whose installations required special technical knowledge that wasn’t easily accessible at the time were carefully paired with scientists. This gave vent to a variety of experimental approaches to art, among which Fujiko Nakaya’s.

Fujiko Nakaya is the daughter of the physicist and science essayist Ukichiro Nakaya, renowned for his work in glaciology and snow crystal photography. Sharing her father’s passion for weather phenomena, and yearning for a medium that could successfully communicate the actuality of society while letting the both interact, she was the first artist to create a sculptural fog environment. Her artworks made of fog came from the collaboration with Thomas Mee, a Los Angeles-based engineer who had originally developed techniques for generating chemical-based artificial fog to protect orchards from frost. It is done by pushing water through a small nozzle and hitting a pin within, this breaks down the water into miniscule particles thereby creating the mist.

First fog sculpture by Fujiko Nakaya and Thomas Mee at the Pepsi Pavilion at the 1970 world’s fair in Osaka, Japan.

In her words, she uses fog to “create a scene in which nature can unfold itself. I am a sculptor but I don’t try to mould fog, the wind is the chisel”. Her work also consists in the interplay between shadow and light, which is reminiscent of her work in the video industry.

‘Fog invites people’; It is an enticing medium to use with dance and music’, said Nakaya. The Japanese artist worked along with Trisha Brown company in order to create stage sets, thus further emphasizing the importance of the human presence in her works.

A scene from choreographer Trisha Brown’s “Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503.

Such immersive approach allows for a full-on interaction where the border between the artwork and its surrounding seem to fade out. People interact with the fog and their movements decide its shapes. And since the installations are condition dependant, everytime one experiences them is somewhat unique.

The versatility of Nakaya’s works lends itself to many different contexts: the Tate Modern, the French countryside, the USA and Japan, just to name a few. The transcendent character of her work visually questions the borders of what is defined as sculpture nowadays and engages the visitors in an active dialogue and participation, which makes them also more aware of their condition.

 

Seminal Japanese artist and Fog Bridge creator Fujiko Nakaya muses on her ephemeral medium and iconic work for the Exploratorium. As part of the Exploratorium's reopening in April 2013, Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya has created a fog installation stretching across the 150-foot-long pedestrian bridge that spans the water between Piers 15 and 17.