Norwegian Wood Art

Usually, discussions of art in Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood center around all the pop songs woven into the plot (starting the the Beatles song that shares the book's title). However, this art exhibit takes things in a new direction.

Anne Weckert's Milking the Muse looks at an array of issues . . . This exhibition is steeped in a conceptual background with the works based on relationships, both those of the artist and those of fictional characters from the book, Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami. Many of the works reference specific parts in the book or in the artist's own life. A very big house in the country (sanatorium) depicts a window, complete with delicate details of the shutters, referencing pg.116 and the quote “I sometimes wonder: IF you and I had met under absolutely ordinary circumstances, and IF we had liked each other, what would have happened? If I had been normal, and you had been normal (which of course you are)”. This is a poignant reflection on relationships, presented so simply yet so well crafted.