[Audio Guide]
Ship for Ararat – Honey of the Sky is one of a series of art objects made in the late 1960s and 1970s. The work comprises a wooden box with glass panels, enclosing an unpublished poetry collection titled Suna no kuchibashi / mawaru ekitai [Sandbank / Spinning Liquid] by the poet Oka Makoto, accompanied by a variety of components. As a livre-objet (book and object[s]), it was produced in an edition of 35, each containing slightly different elements so that each is unique. The collection of Oka’s poems is sealed and cannot be accessed except by breaking its glass enclosure. This work is a fusion of material and language, and in incorporating “a book that can only be read by destroying it,” it epitomizes a spirit of collaboration between poet and visual artist.
