{"id":27365,"date":"2026-03-06T18:08:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=27365"},"modified":"2026-03-06T18:14:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:14:37","slug":"masako-miki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2026\/03\/06\/masako-miki\/","title":{"rendered":"One Of The Best Exhibits Of The Year: Masako Miki\u2019s Furry Cosmic Creatures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The creatures populating the exhibit \u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March,<\/a>\u201d on view the MassArt Art Museum in Boston from Jan. 29 to May 31, 2026, are delightful furry soft things, dotted and striped, sort of like outer space mushrooms, some supported on wooden tripods, others standing on human-like feet standing on tip-toes. The feeling of strolling among them in the big dark gallery, the walls and floor decorated with stars, is like a cosmic walk-through theme park dark ride, charming and wondrous. It\u2019s one of the best exhibits of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miki describes the felted-wool stretched over foam sculptures as mushrooms, shapeshifters, clouds, pine trees, horses, prayer beads, umbrellas, a \u201ccloth deity.\u201d They come alive with spirits and haunts when you read their names: \u201cWaterdrop From A Million Years Ago,\u201d \u201cAged Camellia Flower Spirit,\u201d \u201cSashiko Ghost,\u201d \u201cSentient Roly-Poly,\u201d \u201cPossessed Ancient Monolith Ghost,\u201d \u201cAncient Tree Witness,\u201d \u201cOne Million-Year Old Horse,\u201d \u201cEnchanting Lips Shapeshifter,\u201d \u201cUmbrella\u2019s Whispers,\u201d \u201cDescending Cloud Seeing A Path Forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReferencing nature, Japanese y\u014dkai (supernatural beings), and Shintoism, Miki creates new mythologies that reflect the complexity of multicultural identities and worlds,\u201d according to the museum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese characters often stem from the Hyakki Yagy\u014d, or the \u2018Night Parade of One Hundred Demons,\u2019 a tradition where supernatural beings march through the streets at night,\u201d MassArt Art Museum Director Lisa Tung told UK publication Art Plugged in February 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Miki, who was born in 1973 in Osaka, Japan, has lived for three decades in California, currently in Berkeley. \u201cThe Shapeshifter series started because I wanted to share my process of dealing with dilemmas and questions concerning my bicultural identity between Japan and the US,\u201d Miki told the UK publication Art Plugged in 2021<\/a>. \u201cI began to explore these questions by referencing Japanese traditions based on Shinto\u2019s animism. Y\u014dkai (shapeshifters) appear in my ancestral mythologies and folklore. The simple translation of y\u014dkai would be something like ghosts, deities, or preternatural creatures. Y\u014dkai appear as different forms like human, animal, natural object, and man-made objects. Y\u014dkai are not personifications of the spirit or ideas, the spirit is usually experienced through the unique physical entity. It\u2019s a bit difficult to define who\/what they are because they possess dual characteristics of being sacred and secular and animate and inanimate. \u2026 I felt these ancient y\u014dkai characters offer interesting narratives that are relevant to our current society. In our non-binary society where multiculturalism, gender fluidity and biracial identity seem to be more the norm, our identities have become more complex than in the past.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miki worries that traditional myths can be harmful. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of fascinating how these fictions can drive entire countries, nations and the world,\u201d Miki told Louisville Public Media when she had an exhibition of some similar sculptures at at KMAC Contemporary Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky in 2023<\/a>. \u201cIf you manipulate and communicate them well enough, people believe them, and this is a big part of us, bringing us together, but in a really negative cause. We have too many of these manipulative myths that we need to get rid of, I think. We really need to update them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope these characters are a reflection of who we can become,\u201d Miki said of her creations in 2023. \u201cThat we celebrate the diversity, we celebrate the idiosyncrasies. They\u2019re very independent identities; they\u2019re not conforming to a particular identity that has been accepted in folklore and mythologies. \u2026 If we can\u2019t imagine better, I don\u2019t think we can move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by\u00a0contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And\u00a0sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a>\u00a0so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9 Greg Cook 2026 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cMasako
\u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March” at MassArt Art Museum, February 2026. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Masako
Masako Miki, “Midnight March” 2025, watercolor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Masako
Masako Miki, “Midnight March” 2025, watercolor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The creatures populating the exhibit \u201cMasako Miki: Midnight March,\u201d on view the MassArt Art Museum in Boston from Jan. 29 to May 31, 2026, are delightful furry soft things, dotted and striped, sort of like outer space mushrooms, some supported on wooden tripods, others standing on human-like feet standing on tip-toes. The feeling of strolling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[698,1360,696],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27365"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27378,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27365\/revisions\/27378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}