Summer Sky 2014

Curator: Noriko Saito's "Summer Sky," held here at the Harvard Art Museums, presents a captivating tableau of symbols and textures rendered on a canvas measuring roughly 81 by 72 centimeters. Editor: Wow, it feels like looking at a childhood dreamscape, doesn't it? All these floating figures and bold shapes... slightly unsettling, yet playful. Curator: The work's strength, I think, lies in its enigmatic character, its ambiguity. Saito's blend of abstraction with recognizable imagery—a figure, a sun, perhaps—invites multiple interpretations. The mark-making itself feels significant. Editor: I agree. It's like piecing together a story from fragments. The stark contrast of black and white, punctuated by that bright yellow and blue, really grabs your attention. It's as if Saito is painting a language we haven't quite learned to read yet. Curator: Precisely, and in doing so, she perhaps provides a commentary on how we construct meaning, both individually and collectively. It’s through grappling with these fragmented visual cues that a viewer actively becomes complicit in creating meaning. Editor: It makes me think about the summer skies of my childhood, how they were filled with endless possibilities and imagined creatures. There's something universal in that yearning for connection and understanding, isn't there?