EXCERPT: By the time Shigeko Kubota left Japan for the US in 1964, she had already met John Cage and Yoko Ono, and had her first solo exhibition at Naiqua Gallery, Tokyo, in 1963. Titled ‘1st Love, 2nd Love …’, the show comprised an interactive sculptural installation that, despite Kubota being a feted member of Tokyo’s avant garde, no one wrote about. (She was a woman, after all.) So, when fluxus leader George Maciunas invited her to join him in New York that year, she came without hesitation in the hope of gaining critical recognition. (Shortly after her arrival, Maciunas declared her vice chairman of the group.) There, in the shadow of her far more famous husband, Nam June Paik, she embarked on a series of experiments that culminated in what she described as ‘video sculpture’: video monitors incorporated into three-dimensional structures.
‘Shigeko Kubota: Liquid Reality’ at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA), highlights this pivotal period in the artist’s career, showcasing seven video works – six of which are sculptural – made between 1976 and 1985.
https://www.frieze.com/shigeko-kubota-liquid-reality-2021-review