The Juneau-Douglas City Museum has been awarded more than $11,000 from the Museums Alaska Art Acquisition Fund supported by the Rasmuson Foundation to purchase six artworks from three Juneau artists; Fumi Matsumoto, Rachael Juzeler, and Adam Dimmitt. The fund was established by the Rasmuson Foundation a decade ago to benefit active collecting and exhibiting institutions and support contemporary Alaskan artists.
The grant funded three sculptural works by Fumi Matsumoto, Ibara no Michi (Pathway of Thorns), Issei/Nisei (First Generation/Second Generation) and Gaman (Endure). These pieces speak to Matsumoto’s family experience of forced incarceration during WWII and loss and protection of cultural identity. Gaman (Endure) is a wire cage that houses replicas of shipping tags Japanese American internees were forced to wear when taken from their homes. The tags have photos of family members attached to them. Fume used rose bush branches from her father’s garden and recycled tea bags in Ibara no Michi (Pathway of Thorns) to honor the many internees that created beautiful works of art from the scarce materials they could find while in the camps. The rose bush branches reflect her father’s experience at the camp, where he joined the army from camp and became a highly decorated Nisei Veteran. In Issei/Nisei (First Generation/Second Generation), Matsumoto honors her parents and grandparents and covers two bird houses with Japanese newspaper and her grandfather’s photos. These pieces were included in the 2014 Museum exhibit, The Empty Chair: The Forced Removal and Resettlement of Juneau’s Japanese Community.
The grant funded two works by Rachael Juzeler, Axe no.1 [red line] and Files [cut this out]. Living on Douglas Island and inspired by the Treadwell Hard Rock Mining ruins, Juzeler’s creative palette resides in forgotten and discarded items that she repurposes to create work that challenges function, work ethic, contradiction and nostalgia. Kiln cast glass; rusted metal inclusions, found handles, found frames, metal and fiber speak to the natural environment and lifestyles of Alaskans past and present and orbits around the mining and historic ruins we live amongst.
The grant funded the purchase of And Water by Adam Dimmitt. A unique emerging artist, in 2013 he built, from scratch, a large robotic metal cutting machine, also known as a CNC Plasma Table, that cuts metal with hot plasma. As an artist, he is fascinated by the relationship between digital reproduction and artistic value. Dimmitt studied aviation and music in college and is a medevac pilot residing in Juneau. Made from Dimmitt’s CNC plasma machine, welded raw steel and natural oxides, And Water investigates the cultural discord of modern Alaska by superimposing contemporary elements such as an oil barrel, a cruise ship, a camper, a gun, and an airplane on a form that brings preceding images and cultural traditions to mind.
The Juneau-Douglas City Museum’s summer hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. — 6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. — 4:30 p.m. Admission is $6/general, $5/seniors and free for ages 12 and younger. Annual passes are $25 and offer unlimited visits for the pass holder and a guest. Friends members at the Family level and above receive free admission. The City Museum is a Blue Star Museum, with free admission for the nation’s active-duty military personnel and their families. For more information contact us at 586-3572 or visit: www.juneau.org/museum.
