Takashi Homma
Stony Point #14, 2018
C-type print
36 3/4 x 31 1/2 in
93.3 x 80 cm
93.3 x 80 cm
TAKHOM_2018_SP_014
Stony Point “I have come to the conclusion that much can be learned about music by devoting oneself to the mushroom. For this purpose, I have recently moved to the...
Stony Point
“I have come to the conclusion that much can be learned about music by devoting oneself to the mushroom. For this purpose, I have recently moved to the country.”
– from John Cage’s Music Lover’s Field Companion (1954)
“The Land” was a commune set up by artists near Stony Point, a small town in the outskirts of New York, about 90 car-minutes from Manhattan. In 1954, they were joined by experimental composer John Cage (1912-92), who proceeded to live in Stony Point for over 16 years. The commune was surrounded by thick woods, and mushrooms grew more or less everywhere. Cage bought any book on mushrooms he could find. He was hospitalized after eating poisonous mushrooms, was a founding member of the New York Mycological Society, and won a quiz show on Italian TV, correctly answering each single question about his chosen subject, mushrooms. During his visit to Japan, Cage went mushroom hunting in the forests near Karuizawa.
Asked why he became so infatuated with mushrooms, Cage once replied, “Because mushrooms come right before music in the dictionary.”
“I have come to the conclusion that much can be learned about music by devoting oneself to the mushroom. For this purpose, I have recently moved to the country.”
– from John Cage’s Music Lover’s Field Companion (1954)
“The Land” was a commune set up by artists near Stony Point, a small town in the outskirts of New York, about 90 car-minutes from Manhattan. In 1954, they were joined by experimental composer John Cage (1912-92), who proceeded to live in Stony Point for over 16 years. The commune was surrounded by thick woods, and mushrooms grew more or less everywhere. Cage bought any book on mushrooms he could find. He was hospitalized after eating poisonous mushrooms, was a founding member of the New York Mycological Society, and won a quiz show on Italian TV, correctly answering each single question about his chosen subject, mushrooms. During his visit to Japan, Cage went mushroom hunting in the forests near Karuizawa.
Asked why he became so infatuated with mushrooms, Cage once replied, “Because mushrooms come right before music in the dictionary.”