Visitors can tie into art installation

An artist born in Japan invites visitors to tie their own thread into a piece of hers at Oklahoma Contemporary, 3000 General Pershing Blvd.

The artist is Chiyoko Myose, a 20-year Wichita, Kansas, resident, whose “Sojourning” solo show, will run through Aug. 11.

“I identify myself as a traveler, a sojourner, a temporary dweller,” Myose said of her “A Thread X (Meets) A Thread” installation.

Suspended like a benevolent pinkish spider web, or website, the large “Thread X” installation has a small pile of thread for visitors to add to it.

Vivid red threads dominate “Gift,” an installation made up of a pair of circular wall shapes, attached to what looks like a large ball of yarn on the floor.

In “Bloom,” dramatic, ceiling-hung strands of bright yellow thread, adorned with white floral shapes, reach to the floor, broken by two piles of rocks.

Expressing her wish for world peace, Myose said the yellow threads in “Bloom” represent “harmony and warmth,” while rocks symbolize “current discord.”

Ceiling-suspended, too, in a work called “Akari,” are the wood and white paper stripsthat “serve as room dividers in traditional Japanese architecture.”

Noting that the panels are translucent, Myose said the title, “Akari,” refers to “the light that shonethrough them.”

“Origami Cranes in Blue Light” (which makes walls look pink) are attached to dark wire structures and linked to suspended threads, in a final installation.

Myose described her “Origami Cranes” installation as symbolic of her hope for the future “even in times of uncertainty.”

The show also contains three oil canvases in which flatly painted, multicolored cubes, and more organic shapes, are linked to a tracery of white lines.

Myose said the paintings “show the flat landscapes and limitless horizons of Kansas,” as well as “overlaid … curving lines” representing “her personal vision of Japan.”

Born and raised in Wakajama, Japan, Myose is married and has two children. Her “Chiyoko Myose: Sojourning” show is recommended during its run.

— John Brandenburg, for The Oklahoman

[PHOTO PROVIDED] Families add knots to A Thread X A Thread at the opening of “Chiyoko Myose: Sojourning.” Myose began this piece in Kansas, to demonstrate her wish to treasure each meeting, as a traveler in a new place. Since then, the piece has traveled to other...