The artist working on the sculpture called “Passage of Wind and Water” at Rapid City’s Main Street Square started the fourth year of his five-year project.
Children are running though water sprinklers at Main Street Square at 10 o’clock on a Friday morning. It’s about to be another very warm summer day in western South Dakota. It's here I meet Masayuki Nagase at his “home-away-from-home” since 2013.
I welcome Yuki Nagase to Rapid City and ask how many stone he plans to work on this year.
“I have to do four pieces on the ground and one spire,” Nagase replies.
Those pieces are the four remaining stones that border the west section of Main Street Square. “Yuki” Nagase refers to this section of his sculpture as “The Black Hills Tapestry Garden” since the carvings on stone here reflect the cultural and scientific history of the Black Hills. Stones along the southern section of Main Street Square are called “The Badlands Tapestry Garden” and focus on the cultural and scientific history of that area of South Dakota.
The spire is one of two large stone towers at the entrance to Main Street Square.
As for the images on the stones..
“I’m still using the same visual theme of water,” Nagase explains. “And each stone has a different type of story.”
The first stone Nagase is working on this year involves the history of the horse and the Lakota people.
“That is a very important factor to change their life in the past,” comments Nagase. “That’s one thing that’s strongly connected to Lakota culture.”
Themes for the remaining stones include the history of wagon trains and the discovery of gold in the Black Hills.
Nagase also started sandblasting the west spire where he’s placing images of handprints collected from community members. His work on The Passage of Wind and Water Project continues into the fall.
Related links -
The Passage of Wind and Water sculpture project
The Sculpture Project: Passage of Wind and Water on Facebook