Twin cities-based artist Kinji Akagawa combines the elegant simplicity of traditional Japanese art with a deep concern for the impact of art on public places. Akagawa's bench Garden Seating, Reading, Thinking, which he created for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, incorporates both of these ideas. The artist put together three components for the sculpture: a highly polished vertical granite base, the horizontal slab of cedar, and a roughly textured piece of unfinished green basalt. The three separate elements retain the unique characteristics of the materials as they combine to form a structure that invites us to rest, read, and reflect in the Garden.