[Gallery Visit No. 105] A Modern Likeness Haunted by the Ghosts of Modernity — On Yasutsugu Yamauchi's Solo Exhibition 'Masquerade' (Gallery Face to Face) —
A modern likeness haunted by the ghosts of modernity
— On Yasutsugu Yamauchi's solo exhibition 'Masquerade' (Gallery Face to Face) —
Toshihiko Aman
In our daily lives, the things we encounter have parts that are visible and easy to see, and parts that are hidden and easily overlooked. In works of art and craft, this difference is not insignificant. In the world of craft, those hidden parts are often the keystone that supports the object.
Yasutsugu Yamauchi, a painter who studied crafts, creates pop-style works based on acrylics. He starts with images resembling objective snapshots, such as urban intersections, and creates a base sketch with vibrant colors applied in a hazy, detached manner. Over this, he adds decorations made of varnish and resin, like lighting, as waves of shadow and brilliance that accentuate the textures. Then, in the parts not illuminated by light, he lets the flickering of particles drift. Yamauchi's technique of layering decorative strata is connected to photo-based collage, as well as the decorations found on ceramics, lacquerware, and sliding doors (fusuma).
Art, which is a form of language that depicts the world, discovered humanity during the Renaissance. However, it was not until much later, after passing through wars and plagues, that the loneliness of the individual cast into the world and society became a theme. It was in the 1930s that this began to be felt acutely, a time when the whole and the individual, reality and the ideal, appeared as if they were interchangeable.
This is related to the shifts seen in Dada and Surrealism, and in Japan, avant-garde efforts were also made in the photography magazine 'Koga' (Light Picture). A hundred years later, have these problems been solved?
Unable to escape the ghosts of modernity that appear like a plague, the present day has lost sight of the light. Yamauchi's attempt, which places weight on the parts that become the shadows of light, includes a questioning of what supports our likeness.
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This is Mr. Yamauchi's official website.