Stephen Cooper's intervention at the Ashmolean began with a visit to Japan to research painted screens from the Edo period in the foundations and museums of Tokyo and the temples in Kyoto. Cooper was especially struck by the display of folding screens at the Nezu Foundation in Tokyo, and the temples and grounds located on the eastern side of Kyoto.

Cooper has taken the folding screen format and the concept of museum display cases, as the starting points for the intervention. He constructs relationships between painting and architecture in his new work, and has made two intriguing three-dimensional paintings - one in two parts, the other in four - each resting on a section of painted floor. These works are presented in the existing museum cases, effectively creating an interior within an interior. His intervention plays with ideas of artifice and interior space - significant themes in Japanese art and culture.

Cooper's oil paintings are large, intensely coloured objects, ironically incorporating texts which have been influenced by haiku poetry.

Click here to watch a Video (670Kb) of the intervention at the Ashmolean [Made by Joel Papps and Stephen Cooper

Left: Detail of metal rail for displaying kimono's
Right: Kimono on metal display rail, 17th Century

Drawing from "The Dog Chasing Game", Unknown artist

Dog Chasing Game. Artist Unknown, Edo Period

Left: Suzuki Harunoon (1725 - 1770). The Courtesan Nokaze of the Matsuzaka-ya House
Right: Two - Screen Flower Painting. Ohkyo Maruyama, 1776

Wisteria Painting, Nezu - Foundation. Tangei, Edo Period

Landscape with Sun. Artist Unknown, Edo Period

Left, Centre (left & right): Charm Contests of five belles
Right: 3 ceramic plates by Ogata Kenzan, Edo Period

Katsura Rikyu Imperial Villa, 16th Century. Views of two rooms in the Ko-Shoin

Left:Nezu Foundation, Vajradhatu Mandala. Hanging scroll
Right: Shoren - in Temple, Kyoto

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This intervention has been supported by the AHRB