2021 AR - Tea House
A gallery of select gifts from the George R. Kravis II Collection
Tea House by YoshiHIRO sergel & diana mangaser
2021 - 2022 Artist Residency
Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center was thrilled to extend the Tea House by designers Yoshihiro Sergel & Diana Mangaser in the landscape into 2022. Set upon quarry-stone footings among the ferns and grasses of Mary’s Meadow, the Tea House exquisitely expresses the integration of design and nature at Manitoga while evoking Russel Wright’s great affinity with Japan. Designers Yoshihiro Sergel and Diana Mangaser conceived and hand-crafted the Tea House from wood, paper and string as a space for contemplation and ritual, a stage for poetry and music, and as an open framework for the seasonal changes of nature as spring turns to fall and becomes winter at Manitoga.
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Sergel and Mangaser also ran special programs centered around the Tea House, including Urasenke in Mary’s Meadow, a Japanese tea demonstration led by tea masters from the Urasenke Chanoyu Center, with light food and drink provided by Newburgh Japanese pop-up Hibino. Sergel and Mangaser also organized additional events that utilized the Tea House as a frame to observe each micro-season at Manitoga titled Yuku mizu (行水): Flowing through the Seasons: 立夏 Rikka (Beginning of Summer), 大暑 Taisho (Greater Heat), 秋分 Shūbun (Autumn Equinox), 霜降 Sōkō (Frost Falls). Visitors were able to intimately engage with the landscape and were then greeted in Mary’s Meadow by the design duo for a discussion of the season over tea.
A WORD FROM THE DESIGNERS
“The Tea House is a space to find calm and rest the spirit. It is an open platform which hovers slightly above the ground, a separate world distinct but also connected to everyday life. It is a flexible space—its sliding doors can be adjusted to provide enclosure and inward focus, or open to extend into the landscape. The vertical strings catch sunlight and vibrate in the wind, bringing subtle awareness to the elements and passing of time. We invite you to enter the Tea House—please remember to remove your shoes and respect the delicate nature of the space.”
— Yoshihiro Sergel and Diana Mangaser
ABOUT YOSHIHIRO SERGEL & DIANA MANGASER
Yoshihiro Sergel and Diana Mangaser lead Y S D M, a design studio based in New York’s Hudson Valley. Practicing at the intersection of art and architecture, their work pairs intensive research with the exploration of ideas through the production of sketches, drawings, material studies, models and large-scale mock-ups. Projects are developed through careful consideration of place and draw from traditional skills, local building techniques and materials, with a commitment towards a future of radical sustainability. They endeavor to create buildings (and built-things) that emerge through a process of collective dialogue, shared perceptivity stemming from lived-experience, and responsiveness to specific context and use.
The 2021 Art & Design Host Committee
Lead Sponsors / David M. & Nanci H. McAlpin, The Marilyn & James Simons Charitable Foundation; Sponsors: Joe Chapman, Tom Krizmanic, Gary & Laura Maurer; Supporters: Allison Cross & Henry Nye, David Diamond & Karen Zukowski; Anne & Fred Osborn III/ The Easter Foundation, Lyn & John Fischbach, Frederic C. Rich, William Roos & Scott Olsen, Jonathan & Diana Rose/Lostand Foundation, Alex Reese & Alison Spear; Member: Marlaina Deppe; Friends: Linda & Stephen Breskin, Xavier Fernandez, Annette Gallo, Patricia Zedalis & Michael Strasser
And with support from Manitoga’s Leadership Circle / William Burback & Peter Hofmann, Vernon Evenson & Paul Cassidy, Cheryl & Jack Lenhart, Matthew Marks & Jack Bankowsky, Melissa Meyers & Wilbur Foster, PCLB Foundation, Wild Woods Foundation
This program was made possible, in part, through the Putnam Arts Council's Arts Link Grant Program with public funds from Putnam County, and from the Sara Little Turnbull Foundation and New York State Council on the Arts.