Cincinnati, OH – September 11 through October 17, HANGING GARDEN, the most recent site-specific installation from the Global Tree Project, an international art initiative that seeks to open and affirm connections between audiences and the natural world, is on view in the abandoned deconsecrated19th century Holy Cross Church, in Mount Adams, Cincinnati, Ohio. Focused on nature and the environment, Shinji Turner-Yamamoto creates site-specific installations in venues throughout the world that explore the interplay between absence and presence and illuminate the spiritual in nature. HANGING GARDEN, and all Global Tree Projects completed over the last ten years in India, Ireland, Japan, Washington, DC, and Finland, make visible connections and similarities between plant life and humanity, and emphasize the interconnectedness of all life. The opening reception is Friday, September 10, 6 to 8 pm.

DISAPPEARANCES, a concurrent installation and exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), located in the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, September 18 – January 30, 2011, features sculptural works and a series of paintings commenting on the fragility and transience of the human experience. "Hanging Garden drew me in," explains Raphaela Platow, CAC Alice & Harris Weston Director and Chief Curator. "Shinji and I talked about the project, and when I toured the closed up church of the monastery with him, our idea for Disappearances started gestating. The two shows in tandem create an amazing bridge. It provides our community with open access to an incredible, for a long time obscured, piece of architecture while at the same time returning the space to a spiritual orientation through contemporary art. Shinji uses the traces and residue of the building’s life in the artwork he is creating for the CAC. In a quiet way he narrows our focus on the circle of life that resonates so profoundly when viewing his installations. We are excited to present the show and are proud to be a part of the project’s realization.” For the CAC installation, Turner-Yamamoto will work with such elements as plaster and paint chips discovered while surveying the grounds of the church. “Developing my Global Tree Project HANGING GARDEN at Holy Cross Church,” says Turner-Yamamoto, “I was drawn to debris in the abandoned church where pieces of fallen plaster and paint fragments melded with age-old dust. The material reminded me of the ruins I saw in Italy. It presented an extreme and insistent form of reconciliation between human and nature.” DISAPPEARANCES, an installation, will be created from these plaster fragments, pulverized plaster, and other mineral dust and powders. PENTIMENTI, a series of paintings, use the plaster fragments as support. He will employ a gilding technique – tooling the gold – inspired by Icons from the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt. These sculptural paintings will be installed along the long wall of the gallery, creating a constellation of gilded pieces and their reflections that lead to DISAPPEARANCES. The opening reception is Friday, September 17.

HANGING GARDEN is an artistic ritual in three phases that explores a poetic reunion with nature. The project illuminates our mutual destiny and the precarious beauty of this relationship. The project will be actualized in Holy Cross Church in Mount Adams, Cincinnati, Ohio, on the National Register of Historic Places, and a site imbued with cultural significance for Cincinnatians. With Holy Cross Church, Turner-Yamamoto discovered a unique architectural space that exists out of time and presents an unprecedented opportunity to work with a historic space. “I found beauty in the decay of the church,” says Turner-Yamamoto. “There’s a beauty in how things crack. You can see nature’s power. It’s like looking at a bolt of lightning—it’s the same for me.”

The church nave, stripped to the ribs of its vaulting with the decorative plaster of its walls crumbling, presents an extraordinary opportunity to create an elemental installation that accentuates the intrinsic power of the space. Shinji Turner-Yamamoto envisions a live tree supported by a large inverted dead tree. The intertwined root systems of the uprooted tree holds creating a suspended garden oriented as a tower or cross at the center of the church. After the exhibition, the artist and community will plant the live tree in Mt. Adams. Art Academy of Cincinnati students will work with Turner-Yamamoto to create sculptural works from the dead tree and a virtual catalog. A film by Rob and MaryAnne Van Praag documents the project.

Turner-Yamamoto’s work melds ancient Japanese tradition and contemporary culture offering viewers the opportunity to experience natural phenomena and the artist’s search for its essence. As Washington Post art critic Michael O’Sullivan writes, “Turner-Yamamoto’s work has both a specificity and universality. In other words, it transcends itself." To actualize these projects, and by presenting art outside its anticipated context of museums and the town square, Turner-Yamamoto creates new art platforms that challenge concepts of private and public art. HANGING GARDEN has engendered a sense of community and collective experience often lost in traditional venues. Global Tree Projects bring art and people together, becoming a catalyst for engagement. As new audiences engage with arts, through involvement in project construction and installation, developers, engineers, arborists, landscapers, tree movers, truck drivers, nursery workers, community members, art students, and many others gain first-hand knowledge and an appreciation for a new art form by assisting the artist during the process.

HANGING GARDEN is supported by the Embassy of Japan in the United States of America, Consulate-General of Japan in Detroit, Japan America Society of Greater Cincinnati, Ohio Buddhist Vihara. Presenting Sponsor: Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc. Supporting sponsors: Marilyn and Martin Wade. Contributing sponsors: Schlachter Family Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Vista Foundation, Bill and Mary Baskett, and April and John Schneider. Strategic partners: the Contemporary Arts Center and the Art Academy of Cincinnati. In-kind sponsors: Back Tree and Landscape, Inc., BIO-PLEX, Cassinelli's Glendale Nursery, Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation, Cincinnati Park Board, Essencha Tea House & Fine Teas, HGC Construction, Inc., Mount Adams PAVILION, Rainbow Treecare Scientific Advancements, Structural Systems Repair Group, THP Limited Inc., Towne Properties, and Rob and MaryAnne Van Praag - Van Praag Productions, Wayne Buildings, Inc. Project director: Judith Turner-Yamamoto. Arboricultural Advisor: Tim Back. Community outreach director: Cate Dean. AAC student coordinator: Claire Brose. Media outreach advisor: Preeti Thakar. Development advisor: Mary Sturk.

ABOUT SHINJI TURNER-YAMAMOTO
Turner-Yamamoto studied at Kyoto City University of Arts and Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna and has exhibited widely throughout Europe and Japan, and. His prizes include the UNESCO-ASCHBERG Bursaries for Artists, and Pépinières Européennes pour Jeunes Artistes, and 2000 first prize from the international Targetti Light Art Collection. Past exhibitions include Kyoto Art Walk (Kyoto, Japan - a 2005 international invitational he curated featuring eight installations in city landmarks by ten artists), Crawford Municipal Art Gallery (Cork, Ireland), Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce (Genoa), MUAR (Moscow), Chelsea Art Museum (New York), and Ippaku-tei Teahouse, Embassy of Japan (Washington, DC). His most recent Global Tree Project, SLEEPING TREE, was realized in 2008 through the Greater Reston Arts Center. The catalog documenting this project was published in 2009, coinciding with the release of a documentary film on the project. Upcoming projects include participation in the 2010 Land Art Mongolia 360° Biennial. He is working with the US National Arboretum, Washington, DC, to create a series of works for the Bonsai and Penjing Museum. To learn more about Turner-Yamamoto’s work, please visit:
www.yamamotoshinji.net / www.globaltreeproject.org

ABOUT THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER
Founded in November 1939 as the Modern Art Society by three visionary women in Cincinnati, the Contemporary Arts Center was one of the first institutions in the U.S. dedicated to exhibiting the art of our time. In May 2003, the CAC relocated to its first free-standing home, the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, designed by Zaha Hadid. Throughout its distinguished history, the CAC has earned a reputation for stimulating thought and introducing new ideas by presenting the work of diverse artists from around the world, including hundreds of now-famous artists such as Laurie Anderson, Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson, Nam June Paik, I.M. Pei, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Kara Walker and Andy Warhol. The CAC focuses on new developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media, presenting six to 12 exhibitions and over 20 performances annually. The CAC receives ongoing support from: Fine Arts Fund; Ohio Arts Council; The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. /U.S. Bank Foundation, City of Cincinnati Arts Grant Recipient; The National Endowment for the Arts; the generous contributions and grants of individuals, corporations and other foundations; CAC memberships, facility rentals, special events and sales from the CAC Store. UnMuseum programs and artists are sponsored in part by the Charles H. Dater Foundation, Josephine Schell Russell Charitable Trust, PNC Bank, Trustee, and The Ladislas and Vilma Segoe Foundation.

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Holy Cross Church, 1055 St. Paul Place, Cincinnati, Ohio (National Register of Historic Places) hours: Saturday & Sunday: 11am–6pm (September 11 - October 17)
admission: FREE

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Contemporary Arts Center is located in the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art
44 East 6th Street, Cincinnati, Ohio / 513.345.8400
gallery hours: Monday: 10am–9pm (FREE after 5pm), Tuesday: Closed, Wednesday-Friday: 10am–6pm, Saturday & Sunday: 11am–6pm
CAC admission: Adults: $7.50; Seniors (65+): $6.50; Students w/ID: $5.50; Children (3-13): $4.50; Members and Children under 3: FREE
- Cocktails with the artist and Member Preview beforehand (please call 513.345.8411 to join) -

www.contemporaryartscenter.org

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high-resolution images available at: www.globaltreeproject.org/press/press.html

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