I feel there is a common form of lively energy shared among objects such as the
uprighthumanbodies, all living beings born from the mother earth, and the numerous
ancient foundations constructed years ago.
I view this energy as the kind of energy that counter the powers of the most basic
element, gravity. Then, I expressed these relative forces after I reconstructed them
within myself.
Hidenori Oi
El cuerpo levantado. Los vivientes que nacen de tierra. Las ruinas que construyeron.
siento que son la misma energÃa. La dirección de la fuerza de la energÃa es relativa
de la gravitación. Reconstruye ambos objetivo que tienen energÃa en la mentalidad
y reformo como “forma levantada” usándola piedra cuyo material primitivo.
Gravitation | 1995 | Natural Stone
 On the Residency | Vanessa Paschakarnis on Hidenori Oi’s visit
With the support through the Barnes Endowment, the Division of Art is able to conduct an artist residency for a Japanese artist and sculptor, Hidenori Oi.
The residency takes place from April 10th to May 1st, 2007 and we host Mr. Oi for a three-week period in order for him to work on a large-scale sculpture in Texas Limestone. Upon completion, the sculpture may find a home at SMU.
Mr. Oi will be able to use our newly developed stone carving facilities in the old Baird Factory and there are two students designated as assistants for him, Jessica Hargrave and Derrick Piens, to help realize a work in this relatively short period of time.
The residency is an open studio for visitors in order to experience the artist at work.
Hidenori Oi is a Japanese sculptor whose primary medium is stone. In addition to his three-dimensional work, there is an extensive body of work in two-dimensional media, mostly drawing and printmaking in various printed media.
Mr. Oi graduated in 1986 from the Sculpture Department of Kanazawa College of Graduate School and has been showing extensively in Japan. He received in 1991 the Nagato City Arts & Culture Encouragement Award, in 1998 the Yamaguchi Prefecture Arts & Culture Encouragement Award and in 1999 he was granted the 1999-2000 Fellowship to study in Europe under the Japanese Government Overseas Study Program for Artists. Since then he has been also exhibiting in Spain where he now holds a second residency.
Mr. Hidenori Oi has been highly recommended by Frances Bagley and Tom Orr, good friends of the Meadows School of the Arts and outstanding local professional artists that had met him in person and suggested him to our faculty as a potential visitor. He is a serious professional artist who is very approachable and loves the contact with students.
Mr. Oi’s work falls in the tradition of Japanese stone sculpture in the way he deals with a subject matter that is rooted in the understanding of man in nature and the clear and subtle formal elements. His work deals with gravity, mass and volume and respects the stone as a material that has to be treated with sensibility and subtle awareness.
His work manifests a true addition in the various approaches to the making of art for our students. It has a sensitivity that comes out of the Japanese culture and the residency is a statement to our wish to engage in different cultural relationships.
As the main contact for Hidenori Oi, and as a sculptor who works with the medium of stone myself, I am pleased that he is using the carving facilities I helped to set up in the Baird building. I will help organize the residency and select the student assistants.
The support through the Barnes Endowment allows students to have an insight into the making of a large-scale public sculpture and facilitate the exchange of ideas and approaches between two different cultures.
Since the installment of the stone carving facilities in the spring of 2005 in the old Baird factory, we have the opportunity to host of the caliber a sculptor of Hidenori Oi and it is as exciting for him to work with our local material, Texas limestone, as it is for our students to interact with a Japanese artist over a period of three weeks.
Vanessa Paschakarnis, Assistant Professor of Art
