is a Japanese sculptor and installation artist. After moving to the United States, she got her MFA in Sculpture at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and taught at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and

MIT School of Architecture and Planning The MIT School of Architecture and Planning (MIT SAP, stylized as SA+P) is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1865 by William Robert Ware, the school offered the first ar ...

, before returning to Japan to become professor at the

Tokyo University of the Arts or is a school of art and music in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained artists in the fields of painting, sculpture, crafts, inter ...

Department of Intermedia. She is a 1993

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

and 2010

Anonymous Was A Woman Award The Anonymous Was A Woman Award is a grant program for women artists who are over 40 years of age, in part to counter sexism in the art world. It began in 1996 in direct response to the National Endowment for the Arts' decision to stop funding i ...

winner. she resided in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Biography

Taho was born in 1950 in

Tokushima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Tokushima Prefecture has a population of 682,439 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,146 Square kilometre, km2 (1,601 sq mi). Tokushima Prefecture b ...

. She was later educated at Tokushima University (where she got her BA in 1973);

Musashino Art University or is a private university in Kodaira, Western Tokyo, founded in 1962 with roots going back to 1929. It is known as one of the leading art universities in Japan. History In October 1929, was founded. In December 1948, it became , and in ...

(where she got her BFA in 1977 and MFA in Design in 1979), and

(where she got her MFA in Sculpture in 1985). She was an artist-in-residence at the

Fine Arts Work Center The Fine Arts Work Center is a non-profit enterprise that supports emerging visual artists and writers in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The Work Center was founded in 1968 by a group of American artists and writers to support promising individual ...

from 1985 to 1987, and she received several arts fellowships from the

Asian Cultural Council The Asian Cultural Council (ACC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing international cultural exchange between Asia and the U.S. and between the countries of Asia through the arts. Founded by John D. Rockefeller III in 1963, A ...

(1986),

Pollock-Krasner Foundation The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing funding to visual artists internationally to further their artistic practices. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expr ...

(1987), and the Massachusetts Artist Foundation (1991). She worked as an art lecturer at

from 1987 to 1989, including at their Department of Visual and Environmental Studies; during her time there, she had an art project where her students would together adopt one chicken and then have it slaughtered and eaten and its bones turned into a sculpture. In 1987, an installation of hers was commissioned by the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center for their New Work Japan exhibition. In 1988, she set up ''Forbidden Building'', an installation where she invited others to collect dead leaves to fill a large structure of

chain-link fence A chain-link fence (also referred to as wire netting, wire-mesh fence, chain-wire fence, cyclone fence, hurricane fence, or diamond-mesh fence) is a type of woven fence usually made from galvanized or linear low-density polyethylene-coated st ...

and

scaffolding Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other human-made structures. Scaffolds are widely u ...

nearby Ruggles station. She once worked with Jeffrey Spalding for the 1989 installation work ''Eye of Nature II''. In 1989, Taho moved to the Department of Architecture of the nearby

, where she was assistant professor of visual arts and an Ida Green Career Development Professor. In 1991, she did an installation at the

Massachusetts College of Art Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation's oldest art schools, and the only publicly funded independent art sch ...

, named ''On the Path'', where she "links her Japanese father's enslavement to the

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

with the slavery of the American South". In 1993, she was awarded a

for sculpting, as well as a

Bunting Institute The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...

Fellowship. In 1994, her installation ''Multicultural Diplomats'', where 40,000 inflated

medical gloves Medical gloves are disposable gloves used during medical examinations and procedures to help prevent cross-contamination between caregivers and patients. Medical gloves are made of different polymers including latex, nitrile rubber, polyvinyl ch ...

, containing pieces of paper with the dreams of other people who wrote them down at her request, would be hung from the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, was exhibited at the Arts Festival of Atlanta. On 17 September, ''Multicultural Diplomats'' was destroyed, alongside a majority of the building, when an arsonist ignited a fire by spilling

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

across all three floors above ground. Taho recalled that "We had 40,000 dreams on the roof. I think that kind of fire could be seen as an indication that dreams can come true. The fire eternalized the dreams. It is almost like a god tried to take their dreams". In 1995, she was promoted to associate professor at MIT. ''Artforum'' said that her 1995 exhibition ''Dawn: Transformation of Zero'' at

Capp Street Project Capp Street Project is an artist residency program that was originally located at 65 Capp Street in San Francisco, California. CSP was established as a program to nurture experimental art making in 1983 with the first visual arts residency in the ...

"examined our complex relationship with money". In 1996, she held an installation where

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

residents (reportedly including

homeless people Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

) would anonymously have their dreams engraved on her ''Dream Towers'' sculpture, with ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' calling her the city's "dream collector". In 2001, she organized an installation where pedestrians near an Amherst garage would read poetry, including from Amherst native

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...

. She later moved to the

Department of Intermedia and became a professor there. She won an

in 2000.

References

External links

Official website
(archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Taho, Ritsuko 1950 births Living people 20th-century Japanese sculptors 21st-century Japanese sculptors Japanese women sculptors Sculptors from Boston Artists from Cambridge, Massachusetts Japanese expatriates in the United States Japanese installation artists Women installation artists Tokushima University alumni Musashino Art University alumni Yale University alumni Harvard University faculty MIT School of Architecture and Planning faculty Academic staff of Tokyo University of the Arts