THE ARTISTÉS KARNIVAL: MOTOI YAMAMOTO'S ART WITH SALT

MOTOI YAMAMOTO , JAPAN .

SOURCE - http://www.motoi.biz/english/e_top/e_top.html

ABOUT THE ARTIST –

Born in 1966 at Onomichi, Hiroshima, JAPAN. Worked in a dockyard until 1988. Lives & works in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, JAPAN .

EDUCATION –

1995 – B.A. Kanazawa College of Art

2002 – Prize : Philip Morris Art Award 2002

2003 – Grant : The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc.,New York .

2010 – Grant : Voyager + AIT scholarship program, Tokyo .

THE ARTIST STATES -

“ The mainspring of my work is derived from the death of my sister from brain cancer at the age of 24 in the winter of 1994. Since then, I have had the dilemma, in grief and surprise, of thinking about what I had and lost. I started making art works that reflected such feelings and continue it as if I were writing a diary. Many of my works take the form of labyrinths with complicated patterns, ruined and abandoned staircases or too narrow life-size tunnels, and all these works are made with salt. A common perception towards them is "nearly reachable, yet not quite" or "nearly conceivable, yet not quite".
Memories seem to change and vanish as time goes by. However, what I sought for was the way in which I could touch a precious moment in my memories which cannot be attainable through pictures or writings.

Reasons for using salt

Salt seems to possess a close relation with human life beyond time and space. Moreover, especially in Japan, it is indispensable in the death culture. After my sister's death, what I began to do in order to accept this reality was examine how death was dealt with in the present social realm. I posed several related themes for myself such as brain death or terminal medical care and picked related materials accordingly. I then came to choose salt as a material for my work. This was when I started to focus on death customs in Japan. In the beginning, I was interested in the fact that salt is used in funerals or in its subtle transparency. But gradually I came to a point where the salt in my work might have been a part of some creature and supported their lives. Now I believe that salt enfolds the ﾒmemory of livesﾓ. I have thus had a special feeling since I started using it as a material.”

MOTOI'S SALT WORKS

THE LABYRINTH

Motoi says - " Drawing a labyrinth with salt is like following a trace of my memory. Memories seem to change and vanish as time goes by. However, what I sought for was the way in which I could touch a precious moment in my memories which cannot be attained through pictures or writings. What I look for at the end of the act of drawing could be a feeling of touching a precious memory. During the course of drawing, I cannot tell it if will reach the essential point till its very end because lines are curved or cut against my intention. It depends not only on my psychological or physical condition, but also on the condition of the floor or the level of humidity. I always silently follow the trace, that is controlled as well as uncontrolled from the start point after I have completed it. "