Yasuaki Onishi reverse of volume RG
13 APRIL - 27 JULY 2012
In his installation, reverse of volume RG, Yasuaki Onishi uses the simplest materials — plastic sheeting and black hot glue — to create a monumental, mountainous form that appears to float in space. The process that he calls casting the invisible involves draping the plastic sheeting over stacked cardboard boxes, which are then removed to leave only their impressions. This process of reversing sculpture is Onishi’s meditation on the nature of the negative space, or void, left behind.
Onishi wanted to create an installation that would change as visitors approached and viewed it from outside of the glass wall to inside the gallery space. Seen through the glass, the undulating, exterior surface and dense layers of vertical black strands are primarily visible. At first glance, standing in the center of the gallery’s foyer, it appears to be a suspended, glowing mass whose exact depth is difficult to perceive. Upon entering the gallery and walking along the left or the right side, the installation transforms into an airy opening that can be entered. Almost like stepping into an inner sanctum or cave-like chamber, the semi-translucent plastic sheeting and wispy strands of hot glue envelop the viewer in a fragile, tent-like enclosure speckled with inky black marks. Visitors can walk in and out of the contemplative space, observing how the simplest qualities of light, shape, and line change.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Yasuaki Onishi studied sculpture at University of Tsukuba and Kyoto City University of Arts. He has had solo exhibitions throughout Japan and internationally, and his work was included in Ways of Worldmaking (2011), at the National Museum of Art, Osaka (NMAO). His most recent solo exhibition in the United States was in 2012 at the The Marlin and Regina Miller Gallery at Kutztown University in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. In 2010, Onishi was the recipient of a United States-Japan Foundation Fellowship that included a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, as well as a grant from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Inc., New York.
PRESS
Post by Jared Leto,
JaredLeto.com
25 December 2013
Interview with Joshua Fischer,
Kuhf.org
9 July 2012
Article on
Surveillance
June 2012
Article on
International Magazine of Space Design |bob|
June 2012
Feature on
Art Babble
June 2012
Post on
Organized Wonder
June 2012
Post on
HoustonMuseumDistrict.org
May 2012
Article on
Haaretz Daily
29 May 2012
Post on
Abitare
24 May 2012
Post on
The Fox is Black
24 May 2012
Feature by Tony Adams,
Halcyon Theatre
21 May 2012
Post on
Living Design
20 May 2013
Feature on
File Magazine
11 May 2012
Post on
Ignant
10 May 2012
Post by Kyuhee Baik,
The Creators Project
10 May 2012
Post on
Mutantspace
10 May 2012
Post on
muuuz
10 May 2012
Post by Alison Furuto,
archdaily
10 May 2012
Post on
thisispaper
10 May 2012
Post on
tevami
8 May 2012
Post on
designboom
8 May 2012
Post by Carles Faus Borrás,
C F B
7 May 2012
Post by Michael Hession,
Gizmodo
5 May 2012
Post by Geoff Smith,
Arts and Culture Magazine Houston
4 May 2012
Post on
Fast Company’s Co.Design
4 May 2012
Post on
My Modern Metropolis
4 May 2012
Post by Robert Boyd,
The Great God Pan Is Dead
29 April 2012
Post on
wewastetime.com
27 April 2012
Post on
Frame
23 April 2012
Post by John Hill,
world-architects
23 April 2012
Post by Ruby Yeh,
HoustonPress
13 April 2012
Post on
Spoon & Tamago
3 April 2012
Post by Okmarzo,
Empty Kingdom
3 April 2012
Post on
GOoood
2 April 2012
Post on
Procured
16 March 2012
PAST PRESS
Article by Matthew Larking,
The Japan Times
13 October 2011
Post by Jeffrey Perkins,
Behind the Heavy Drapes
27 February 2011
Photos by Nash Baker © nashbaker.com