Mono-ha - School of Things

Catalogue of an exhibition at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, May 26-July 22, 2001 and Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn, September 9-October 13, 2001.

"Mono-ha, literally ‘school of things’, is the name given to a group of artists who came to critical attention in Japan in the late 1960s. These ‘things’ refer not only to the material things from which their work is made, such as oil clay, stones, glass, iron plates, ropes, wood and earth, but also to the strangeness of the works themselves. Neither quite sculptures, nor installations, their very existence appears to confound traditional artistic genres. Although fiercely critical of Western modernism, their use of natural materials, and their radical attack upon traditional assumptions about the work of art, seem to share many affinities with Minimalism and Arte Povera." Kettle's Yard press release for the exhibition, 2001.