Traditions: Ohio Heritage Fellows; 201; Kay Koeninger interview

Q:

KAY: K, my name is Kay Koeninger, K-A-Y K-O-E-N-I-N-G-E-R.

Q:

KAY: Uh, I’m a professor of Art History at Sinclair Community College.

Q:

KAY: Origami is a very old uh, technique of using paper in Japan, to fold really beautiful objects. And, technically, it’s a folk art. It’s something that you learn from your family and you pass down through the generations. And, in the United States, it’s become popular. Uh, we kinda look at it as kind of a hobby, kind of a fun thing that kids do. But, in Japan, it’s very serious. It’s actually taught in the schools. And it’s something that um, helps people come together learn social skills and also how to use their fingers really well. Um, so it’s got a very interesting tradition in all... all parts of the world. Um, it’s uh, ve—you know, very popular here, but has really older roots in Japan.

Q:

KAY: It is. Um, and I think it’s because, in Japan, there’s no real break between what is art and what is craft. You know, we still have that division in the United States. You know, craft is kinda considered a little lesser and art is up here. In Japan, there’s really no distinction. Um, origami is art. Um, a tea ceremony is art. Um, pottery for a teacup is art. Um, so I think, probably in Japan it’s—it’s much more important than it is here, traditionally.

Q:

KAY: Well she actually learned it um, you know, she went to uh, high school in Japan and learned it in school. And then, when she came to the U.S, to go to college, you know, brought that gift with her. And then, she went back to Japan and, kinda, rediscovered it again in the seventies. Um, she saw a display in a department store in Tokyo. And then, when she came back to the U.S. to live she brought that whole idea of origami back with her.

Q:

KAY: Well, she had a interesting place, because she kinda bridges the... the fine art world and the gallery world with origami world here, which is more a hobby craft um, community. Um, her work is going to take origami, but go in um, directions that fit abstraction, minimalism, uh, contemporary art. So, she’s kind of a bridge figure. I think she kind of fits... fits both areas. Both art and craft.

Q:

KAY: Yea, and, you know, I don’t know if I’m real qualified to talk about that but, um, I don’t think the orig—it—to me, the origami world in the Midwest is as big as it is on the west coast. Um, so she’s bringing something pretty new to it. Um, to a community that’s pretty small, but also, she’s got this larger art community that she’s dealing with as well. I don’t know does that... ?

Q:

KAY: Yea, actually um, I was just looking at some of her work and um, she does exhibit internationally. Uh, and it is international, it’s become international in terms of origami. But, you know, a lot of times her work isn’t fitting into origami, it’s fitting into contemporary art um, so that’s what makes it so interesting.

Q:

KAY: Oh, ok. Um, her work is both um, you know, based in origami but, it’s also contemporary. Um, unlike traditional origami, she usually works in white. Um, and a lot of her work is very large scale. It goes into the realm of sculpture. And something that we call sight specific. That if she’ll do a big piece, say in a bank lobby, which she did in Dayton. And it’s um, designed to really fit the space uh, to go with a space, to compliment it. It’s also designed that the viewer has to interact with it. Um, they have to walk around in it. And, all this really goes back to the seventies um, to minimalism, which was uh, a movement that got artists away from um, having art—having it tell a story. It’s just about the form of the art and it’s based on um, geometry and perfection. And her work really plays into that, even though she’ll take basic origami forms and manipulate them. Um, she’ll use bamboo sometimes, which is very Japanese... string and her paper and that’s all she’ll use to make a huge sight specific sculpture. And I think that’s why her work is so appealing to a lot of different people.

Q:

KAY: Ok, one of the uh, um, one of the form’s that you Yasue uses might be familiar to people who do origami and that’s one of the forms that you learn. It’s called a crane. And it’s basically the crane, which is a really uh, wonderful symbol in Japan of... of good luck and prosperity and that’s uh, a very popular origami figure too. And she’ll take that crane and make a lot of them and put them together with her string and bamboo. Sometimes, she’ll take just a f—a part of the crane, maybe a trai—a triangle form and manipulate that and make it very large um, and make a sculpture out of that. Um, so she’ll take, again, the basis of origami, but then, in a very individual way um, make a new form.

Q:

KAY: In 2003, I did a big show for the Ohio Arts Council called “Imagining Flight”. And it was all Dayton artists, because that was the centennial of the Wright Brothers. And they all dealt with flight. And I had to have Yasue. And she was very glad to be in the show. And she took part of the crane motif um, which usually turns out to be about like this, but took one of the triangles of that into a form that was this big. And then, took hundreds of these to create a sculpture for the Rife Gallery that looked like flight. It was an—in an arc. And people loved it. And it was just beautiful. It’s beautiful up close and it’s really beautiful far away. Um, and that’s the genius of her work, is to take origami and then, uh, expand it into um, a large, you know, contemporary sculpture.

Q:

KAY: Not that I know of. Um, origami, again, most people do it as kind of hobby craft and it’s small. Um, now some of her students uh, will take some origami forms and um, expand them. Um, but as far as I know, she’s the main person doing these large sculptures. And, part of the reason is um, she also studied architecture. So, she’s not afraid of uh, three dimensions on a really big space and she knows wh—you know, what buildings are about. Um, the piece that she did in—in Dayton uh, was in a bank building that was designed by I. M. Pei, the great Chinese architect, so it had a very much of an Asian sensibility to it. And her sculpture looks wonderful in that lobby.

Q:

KAY: Probably not. Um, mainly because in terms of contemporary art, anything really interesting is gonna be experimental. And it either works or it fails and that’s just what they do um, yea. But, they’re unique, yea.

Q:

KAY: No, she can do small things. And she’s really wonderful about community arts projects. Um, she doesn’t look down on working with children, teaching people to do origami for the first time. She uses it as a tool um, to get people interested in making things. Because, in our culture, we don’t have the tradition of making things too much anymore, because we’re digital, which is also creative. But, the handmade object um, is a new concept to a lot of people. And I think um, I’ve seen her work small. Um, and she’ll do smaller pieces, and when she does that, she usually does uh, that with the colored paper, which is more traditional in Japan. Usually in Japan, if you do origami, you use all sorts of beautiful colored paper. And that’s another reason she’s unique, ‘cause she’s gone uh, to using, you know, neutral color to white, yea.

Q:

KAY: I think it’s because it’s unique and it’s also, it ties into minimalism. Um, you want the form, and sometimes color, artists have... have dealt with this a lot in history. Color is wonderful, but it can be very distracting. And if you just have the white form, you really concentrate on um, geometry and design.

Q:

KAY: Well, I think she’s a master or mistress, if you want to use that. Um, because she’s taken a very complicated uh, traditional form, mastered it. Technically, she can do anything in origami. But then she takes it two or three steps in another direction. And that other direction uh, comes through her knowledge of contemporary art and architecture. And so, she’s come up with a new form, but based really solidly in a very um, traditional uh, craft. And that’s why she’s... she is unique.

Q:

KAY: Well, I think it’s um, I think her work is important um, to the art world. And the art world can mean a lot of different um, things. Um, again, she’s using a really non- traditional material, paper. Um, she’s using basic white paper, usually. Um, she’s um, showing a craft form that’s from another culture, which I think is really important. But she’s making it um, understandable to a lot of different people who might not even think about looking at origami. A lot of people in the art world might say uh, hobby, craft. But now they have to look at it um, a lot differently. Um, so there are a lot of different layers in her work. And um, I think it can relate to a lot of different people. People who do origami can go and look at one of her big sculptures and say, wow, I—I know how to make a crane. And then, an art critic might go on and, you know, come in and say, wow, minimalism uh, sight specific sculpture. Um, so on all these points um, that makes her work really interesting to a uh, a wide range of people.

Q:

KAY: Oh, ok, like if I go into, you know, when I go into a gallery and see her work and this is part of the reason I chose her work for the uh, the Rife Gallery show um, I see the origami influence, you know, really strongly and that’s interesting, ‘cause I... I used to love doing origami like everybody, hopefully, has had a chance to do. Um, it’s very Asian in its sensibility and I love Asian design. Um, but it’s also very contemporary and um, accessible. A lot of the... the times in a gallery, even though it’s quiet, there’s still air currents. And, because her work is so, you know, so light weight and engineered, it moves a little bit too. And, in a big piece, when you walk around it, you’ll see the movement and you’ll see if from different angles. Uh, so you have to interact with it. So, all those things make me really uh, intrigued by her work. I’m always glad to see it.

Q:

KAY: I think that’s um, um, with Yasue um, in terms of the eight um, Japanese tradition, it’s a really strong tradition that if you’re uh, a master of a skill or an art, you really have a responsibility to pass it on. Also, in Japan, there’s a huge respect for elders um, uh, especially artists. In fact, Japan has something called Living Treasures. Um, here in the United States, you know, where you think of a... a treasure, you think of a building. Well, in Japan it’s a person. And a lot of um, older artists are honored every year as living treasures. And, in a way, the Ohio Arts Council Heritage Program really kind of fits into that too. I—I don’t know if they were inspired by the Japanese example? They might have been, because the Japanese were really kind of the first to do this, because it’s not just painters and sculptors, it’s uh, people who work in what we would call craft art. Um, so she has that sense of she needs to pass this on. But I also think she realizes the respect that the student will have for her. Um, or she will teach them, you know, that respect through the workshop. I also think it’s really important in Ohio to have an artist uh, of Japanese heritage. You know, Ohio’s becoming more diverse. Um, the Asian community uh, from Japan is still fairly small in our state. It’s very important um, economically, you know, I think of Marysville Honda plant, etcetera, there’s still some misconceptions about Japan maybe from older generations here, so I think her workshops help with that. Also, I have found a lot of young people, today, in the U.S. are extremely interested in Japan. And I think this is a way to reach them as well. And, I’m—I’m— Yasue is savvy. I’m sure she knows all of this, but she’s working on a lot of different levels, and I think she just loves to teach, you know. It—it comes down to that.

Q:

KAY: Yea, Yasue has had a lot of really um, wonderful apprentice’s over the years. And again, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact she loves to teach um, and she’s a wonderful role model. And I think, in a lot of ways, that whole apprentice idea, you know, really goes back to Japanese culture as well. It’s something that’s not that formalized in our country. I think we’re doing it more and more like job shadowing and things like that. But, it’s go—a very strong tradition in Japan, especially when it comes um, you know, to the arts. And so, Yasue has really, kind of, kept that tradition alive too. And her students are really all over the place. There’s some in Dayton, Columbus um, probably other states as, you know. Um, she’s uh, had a wide reach. And again, I think she’s always been very willing to give of her time uh, to other people.

Q:

KAY: Ohio needs an artist like Yasue because Ohio has a very strong craft tradition. Um, and maybe some people don’t think it’s that important, but it is very important and she fits into that. Um, the fact that she is Japanese-American and brings um, an Asian sensibility to art, I think is really important uh, for our state as we become global. Um, again, uh, young people very interested in Japan. Um, a lot of young people actually go to Japan now and teach English. Um, and while they’re there they learn, you know, the great craft tradition uh, of Japan. Um, business wise, a lot of American’s will be working either in Japan or have contact with um, Japanese colleagues in the years to come. Um, she’s really kind of an example of um, you know, the Asian community in uh, Ohio as—as well, which is a very important one.

Q:

KAY: I think um, Yasue received this award because she’s so visible. She’s everywhere. And she’s an example of as you age gracefully, you don’t slow down. Um, she exhibits in Ohio, nationally, internationally um, she’s a famous artist, but she’s also never afraid to do a community art event, which a lot of artists, frankly don’t have the time or inclination to do. Um, but she’s still doing that quite a lot. Also, the fact that she has a lot of uh, adult apprentices, shows that she’s able to operate on a lot of different levels um, with her art um, i—in terms of teaching. So, she’s a wonderful example for um, everybody um, artist and non-artist alike.

Q:

KAY: I think we hit... hit almost everything. I mean, for me, the most important part of her is that bridge between what we call craft and what we call art and how, you know, that sounds kind of technical, but what comes out of it is really amazing. Uh, it’s beautiful, it’s approachable. Uh, one thing that’s really interesting about her work um, it’s affordable. Um, she doesn’t have the barriers of, oh wow, I’ve got to get this cast in bronze um, and that’s gonna cost thousands of dollars and who can afford that? Her work, um, really takes an everyday material and really transforms it into something um, quite amazing. And that’s a really good part of contemporary art is making art out of what we didn’t think was art. And taking it in a whole new direction. Also, I’ve seen Yasue install and it’s amazing, because she has all these thousands of bits that she’ll just bring in in sacks and work with them in all sorts of ways. And then, all of a sudden, a whole huge space, like a bank lobby or the Rife Gallery uh, is totally transformed. And it’s just wonderful. A—and, and they come in sacks. And if she doesn’t like it she’ll, you know, refold it um, it’s amazing to watch her put uh, an installation up. And you think it’s gonna take a long time and it’s up really quickly, because she knows it so well and it’s well constructed um, and engineered. Um, I think that comes from her... her architecture background.

Q:

KAY: I think she probably would go like a hundred miles faster than me. I’ve actually never seen her actually do the components. I’ve only seen her install. Um, and the thing is if she doesn’t like a piece on the spot, she’ll... she’ll do some folding and just... it’s almost automatic. And it shows that she’s really um, a master um, at what she does. So, her knowledge goes way beyond what the ordinary person would have um, in origami.

END