September 11, 2018

Keith Aoki, Untitled, mixed media. 1977.

Keith Aoki was an artist of the iconic Cass Corridor, a movement which he described as artists creating works akin to Jackson Pollock painting, but with sculpture. This untitled sculpture from 1977 embodies the Cass Corridor’s appeal to found objects.  It is roughly seventy-seven inches of wood wrapped in duct tape. With its dull color and its tubular, linear tiers, it resembles a weapon or mechanical device. One could even compare it to a cane, or see it as pure sculptural abstraction. Aoki was inspired by three prolific artists in Detroit during his time here: John Egner, Steve Foust, and Gordon Newton. He was interested in transforming found industrial material into art, as well as making his work intellectual. In the growth of his artistic career, he became increasingly inspired by the thinking and philosophies of people unassociated with art. In the late 1970s, he became fascinated with the concept of hierarchy, a theme that manifests subtly in this 1977 untitled work through it’s top-heavy composition with emphasis on levels and an elongated form.

Aoki received his BFA from Wayne State University in 1978 with a concentration in sculpture. He left Detroit that Fall to pursue a Masters (with a concentration in sculpture and filmmaking) at Hunter College in New York. He continued his art and also worked as an artist assistant to the sculpture Tony Smith. Unsurprising to Aoki’s peers who knew him to be brilliant and smart, Aoki took a leap and attended Harvard Law School for a Juris Doctor degree. He later studied at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and ended his career teaching law at the University of California, Davis. But his art and creativity did not cease when his law career flourished. He published numerous comics concerned with Copyright law and literally illustrated other rules of law. Keith Aoki passed in 2011. He is remembered in the art community and in academia as bright, devoted, and beloved. This sculpture by him is on view at the Student Academic Success Center on the first floor of the Undergraduate Library at Wayne State. It was donated in 1992 by James F. Duffy Jr.

Written by Danielle Cervera Bidigare

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