Aki Yamamoto : Quick Moments

The title of the exhibition, "Quick Moment," means "a lively moment," and the artist explains it as follows: "I believe that a lively moment is usually when you experience a gap between the ordinary and the extraordinary due to an unintended event. The artist explains the title of the exhibition as "Quick Moment," which means "a moment of liveliness," as follows: "When I feel lively, I usually experience a gap between the ordinary and the extraordinary due to an unintentional event.
Suppose you hear a sound in a noisy or quiet environment. Whether it resonates or not depends not only on the environment, but also on the sensitivity of the receiver or subject. An unintended event may possibly pass unnoticed. However, it is still actually in view, including that. When it is out of sight, it can be a moment, and depending on the experience, it can be a long dwell time."
This time, we will install a two-dimensional works that invites you to such an experience.

"To see the land from the sea" 2023 Oil on canvas 805 x 1303mm
The motif of this exhibition is a map of Tokyo. The main focus is on the watershed map and the Jomon sea advance of Tokyo Bay as the sea level rises and moves inland. The complexity of Tokyo Bay, which is encompassed by both oceans and rivers, is vividly expressed in Yamamoto's unique colors in this work.

The Forest Road series
Yamamoto stayed in Iide-cho, Okitama-gun, Yamagata Prefecture to conduct watershed research, which he had also conducted in Nagano Prefecture (curator: Emi Kato). The theme was "Salt Road," an ancient road on the Echigo Kaido Highway connecting Niigata to Yonezawa. The "Road of Salt" was cut in curved lines on 30 boards, and the red, green, and orange were connected in a pure white snowy landscape. Iide-cho has a thriving forestry industry, so we used waste wood boards.
We actually heard from the Headwaters Forest Interpretation Association, which published a "Report on the 'Road of Salt' Treading" and conducted a snow trek up Mt. Odate, part of the old road, to confirm the road of salt from the watershed before creating this project.

Walking on Ridge 2023 Paint on wood each 500 x 300 x 40mm
Artist's Comment: I believe that color can only occur in a polyphonic state. For the past three years, I have been using maps as a motif for my oil paintings.
Maps are a tool to tell the story of an undeveloped land and are like a flat standard language. Even a map as dense and sparse as a GSI map, if each person tries to flag it down, there is as much story as the number of people who flagged it down. I think this polyphonic state of affairs has a lot to do with the emergence of color.

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