Watch Kenzan's artist talk about the piece "Gather" at Seattle Asian Art Museum

From Seattle Asian Art Museum:

Stay home with SAM and take a tour of the newest installation in the Garden Court of the Asian Art Museum with artist Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn! A native of Seattle and currently based in New York, Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn is an LED light installation artist who has also practiced fiber art (indigo dye in particular). Tsutakawa-Chinn’s artistic expertise and experience, as well as his intimate knowledge of SAM’s Asian Art Museum building and Volunteer Park, guided him as he conceived this installation in our Garden Court. Learn more about the legacy of Asian artists working in Seattle and around the world, as well as the inspirations behind "Gather." Born out of a combination of cultural inspiration, metaphysical energy of art, and compositional geometry, the installation takes the shape of a canopy with a cross pattern found in both ikat and sashiko (stitch) textiles. It slowly narrows in the front, creating an elegant curve and a welcoming gesture for visitors entering the museum. Isamu Noguchi’s "Black Sun" sculpture in Volunteer Park serves as a symbolic focal point, radiating its energy into the Garden Court and onto the LED canopy. We can't wait to gather with you under this artwork once we are able to reopen.

You can also watch the video on SAM’s YouTube channel.

Watch Kenzan's take on "Light as Art" on CODA Magazine's Collaborators Panel

CODAworx was founded around a central principle: collaboration. The incipient trend of crossing disciplines with abandon within a design project is what CODAworx is all about. Watch the first Collaborators Panel on Vimeo, with a hand-selected group of artists and designers featured in the Light as Art issue of CODAmagazine.

Featuring Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn, Matthew Placzek, David Dahlquist and Martin Boverhof on their work, recent lighting trends, and the collaborative process.

Three Generations of Artists in the Seattle Asian Art Museum

A Family’s Long Relationship With Seattle’s Asian Art Museum Endures With a New Light Sculpture

Check out this article by Mayumi Tsutakawa about Kenzan, his family history, and the Seattle Asian Art Museum in the Arts & Culture section of the South Seattle Herald. It’s a wonderful description of three generations of artists and their ties to Asia, Seattle, and the Museum.

Inside the Kaleidoscope: Portland Winter Light Festival

In the Fall of 2016, Helen Kozora-Tell invited us to participate in the Portland Winter Light Festival, held February 1-4, 2017.  Helen has developed an eye for immersive environments as a Set Decorator, working on productions such as Inception, Django Unchained, Interstellar, and a variety of Marvel Universe films. 

The creative brief set forth was to create an "experience in a tent". Kenzan took this as an opportunity to test a couple concepts regarding human subconscious perception using vision. The experience uses LED strip, LED washes, and mirrors to engage both the Rods (contrast and movement) and the Cones (color and sharp focus) of the eye to create maximum excitement in the brain's visual centers.