JIRO OKURA
AND THE MOUNTAIN LAKE WORKSHOP

Jiro Okura
Jiro Okura, Mountain Lake Screen Tachi, 1990
16 folding screens, four panels each, 86 x 120 in. each
Black Walnut, synthetic gold leaf, red & black cashew oil paint, rabbit skin glue

When Kyoto-based “minimalist” sculptor Jiro Okura saw reproductions of the works in the exhibition catalogue, he was deeply moved. He already had been influenced by Cage’s ideas about chance and indeterminacy, ideas that derived, in part, from Japanese Zen philosophy. Because the ideas in his own work shared an affinity with those of the Mountain Lake programs, after much discussion and planning, he was invited to be a guest artist in a collaborative workshop project.41 His “chance” viewing of the catalogue JOHN CAGE/NEW RIVER WATERCOLORS, led to Mountain Lake and eventually Okura conducted workshops in 1990, in 1992 and 1993.

The focus of Okura’s workshops developed out of his own deep respect for natural materials, especially wood. This respect is based on an understanding of the relationship between nature as an environment of material substance with physical location, and as a concept of pure space. For Okura, substance and space acquire a sense of plenitude when the self grasps this relationship, which wood (or any other natural material) can symbolize if treated properly. Okura’s ideas, which are expressed by his treatment of wood, are manifested in Eastern belief systems through ritual practices that allow for chance and indeterminacy in the processing of materials. Obviously, such ideas paralleled the Mountain Lake conception of the self and locale as related manifestations of both natural and psychic forces.