YURIKO YAMAGUCHI: Interconnected, No End & Web
On View:
May 19 – June 23, 2018
Opening Reception:
Saturday May 19, 2:00 – 8:00pm
On View:
May 19 – June 23, 2018
Opening Reception:
Saturday May 19, 2:00 – 8:00pm
Yuriko Yamaguchi, Web #4, 2002, abaca, flax paper pulp and steel wire, 5'x7'x3', on view at Barbara Davis Gallery
Barbara Davis Gallery is pleased to announce Yuriko Yamaguchi’s solo exhibition Interconnected, No End & Web. The exhibition opening is May 19, 2018 with an artist reception from 2:00pm - 6:00pm and is on view through June 23, 2018.
Yuriko Yamaguchi explores the interconnectedness of humans and nature with themes that include growth, change, and vulnerability. She seeks to find the “hidden connections between everything,” from nature to the computers. Yuriko is fascinated by the paradox of how humans struggle with ‘individual free will in a terminally interdependent world’ represented in the form of abstract sculpture made of organic and inorganic materials such as gampi and flax papers, resin and steel and stainless-steel wires.
No End
Yuriko Yamaguchi is interested in the idea of “interconnectedness” in our universe, nature, science, society and art. Her major influence is Dr. Fritjof Capra’s book, Web of Life; a new scientific understanding of living systems, which continues to inspire her work. She believes all parts of this ecosystem are interconnected within a holistic-web like structure and that we need to embrace those connections in order to adopt today’s rapidly changing society. Yet, fundamentally the cycle of life stays the same as the origin of life.
Yuriko is also drawn to another matter: parts to a whole theory. She focuses on the information generated by the relationships among all parts of a system as a significant factor in understanding the character of the whole. Her work process evolved organically as living things do. First, she created many pieces of cell forms randomly; then she started connecting them by using her sense of space and intuition. Yuriko allowed accidents to happen in the process for the sake of discovery and their inherent structure to emerge as she engaged with them.
Instead of using the traditional papermaking method, Yuriko invented her own paper making method with gampi paper pulp and stainless-steel wire. She dips stainless steel wire into a paper pulp bath, coating them with layers of thin paper pulp. As scientists want to discover or unveil the mystery of life, she hopes to encounter something never thought of before. Being a human, Yuriko feels a sense of urgency to express life’s vulnerability and mortality in her work.
No End, carries a feeling of her personal and social vulnerability. The struggle to survive will never end. Our social political battle will never end. Our conflict will never end. Leaves on a tree fall in autumn but new leaves rejuvenate the following spring, as do our lives by giving way to the next generation. This work will be continued to a next level of dynamism in the future in the different environment and it is meant to change, transforming according to a new space and time.
Yuriko Yamaguchi received her MFA from the University of Maryland and her BA from the University of California at Berkeley. Her works are in museum collections, including the Figge Museum in Davenport; Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa, Japan; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Smithsonian American Art Museum. She has earned many awards and fellowships including Jentel Artist residency the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center residency, 2017 Werner Thoni Artist Residency, Barcelona, Spain, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the Joan Mitchell award and National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship. Yamaguchi has executed major public commissions at the Hartsfield International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia, the Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC and the Light Rail Project, Charlotte, North Carolina. She has exhibited widely across the United States, including Los Angeles County Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, and Museum of Modern Art in Kamakura, Japan, Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, MA, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC among others.
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