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Salt Installations By Motoi Yamamoto
Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto explores the creation of two dimension objects and how he and viewers relate to them using the medium salt. What are his installations like? Some embody the ultimate stillness as in the "Labyrinth," while others pull you to the sky spinning you around as in "The Floating Garden." While you can not physically interact with these creations you feel you are a part of them. Is it because there is so much of Yamamoto's meticulous movement reflected in each of them? These installations require hours of work spreading and piling salt with any means necessary. Tools such as rakes, sanders, spreaders and squeeze bottles help create each piece. With universal themes like broken planets, typhoons and snowy mountains viewers can connect with his work. The natural world is embodied in all his work including the medium he uses, salt. Why salt.......because it is traditionally a symbol for purification. His works seek to cleanse by expression. This is never more evident as in his statement about his sister's death at the age of 24. "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 seek is to capture a frozen moment that 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....I spin all these memories of my sister into my art," Motoi Yamamoto.
His salt works are gathered by volunteers and returned to the sea. This is how one artist, supported by his community, copes with loss.
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