Keith Sonnier “Tokobashira & Mardi Gras Masks”

The National Exemplar

poster for Keith Sonnier “Tokobashira & Mardi Gras Masks”

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Tokobashira series:
SUKU-NA-BIKO, 1984
AIZEN-MYOO, 1984

Mardi Gras masks:
GANESHA, 2005
OBELIN, 2008
RAYNE, 2008
BRAHMA, 2017

Concerned with western technology and eastern languages, communication systems and sensuous materials, Keith Sonnier restlessly swings between modern and archaic cultures.

Long before multiculturalism was “in”, Keith Sonnier was already a multiculturalist.
Throughout his career Sonnier has made works in, and related to the places he happened to be living in at the time.
India in 1981, Bali in 1983, Japan in 1984, Brazil in 1985….. In all of these places Sonnier sought and worked with local craftsmen and local materials to make work inspired by each location.

In the Tokobashira Series (1984) he used native Japanese wood to create a series of sculptures, two of which are included in this exhibition: Suku-Na-Biko and Aizen-Myoo. Both are both Gods in Japanese mythology.

Suku-Na-Biko is the Japanese dwarf God who is associated with healing, agriculture, and hot springs. Though of minute stature and slow gait, the dwarf god knew everything, and traveled everywhere.

Aizen-Myoo is the Japanese God of love, worshipped by prostitutes, landlords, singers and musicians alike. Despite his ferocious appearance (he has a third eye vertically placed between his other two eyes) he is considered beneficial to mankind. Originally he was a god of the Shingon and Tendai and represented the kind of love that changes into desire for enlightenment.

Mardi Gras Masks (2005-2017) are made with materials (plastic bottles, house cleaning materials and hardware) found in his hometown in Louisiana and on the beaches near his Long Island home. Mardi Gras is a very strong tradition in Cajun culture. These masks pay homage to his childhood in Grand Mamou.

Born in Mamou, Louisiana in 1941 he received his BA at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1963.
In the summer of 2018, the Parrish Art Museum will present a solo exhibition of Sonnier’s works

Media

Schedule

from October 24, 2017 to December 09, 2017

Artist(s)

Keith Sonnier

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