Motoi naruto

Return to the sea project 2006 by motoi yamamoto
Born in 1966, Motoi Yamamoto lives and works in Tokyo.
Motoi Yamamoto.

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A Requiem in Salt: Japanese Artist Yamamoto Motoi

In Loving Memory

Yamamoto Motoi slowly walks up a gentle slope, his arms folded tightly as he gazes at a blue patch in the gray skies above the small island of Momoshima off the coast of Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, in the Seto Inland Sea. The 51-year old artist is back in his hometown for a new piece, a sprawling installation made entirely of salt titled Ruri no Ryū (Lapis Dragon). After six days of nearly nonstop toil, he now looks over his artistic output with a sense of accomplishment and emancipation.

His creation, part of local gallery Art Base Momoshima’s exhibit Crossroad 2, represents both a return to work and a new direction for Yamamoto. It is his first artwork using a new technique and the first since his wife Junko succumbed to cancer the previous fall at age 43. After nearly a year hiatus, he has created the stunning piece as a requiem to his spouse and mother of their four-year-old daughter.

Yamamoto Motoi Born in 1966 in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture. Graduated from Kanazawa College of Art in 1995. Cu

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Return to the Sea: Motoi Yamamoto

2 March - 26 May 2013

Mint Museum Uptown

at Levine Center for the Arts

“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.”

- Motoi Yamamoto

This exhibition centers around a site-specific installation that the artist will create over the course of a week at The Mint Museum. Internationally renowned, Motoi Yamamoto is known for working with salt, often in the form of temporary, intricate, large-scale installations. Salt, a traditional symbol for purification and mourning in Japanese culture is used in funeral rituals and by sumo wrestlers before matches. It is frequently plac

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Return to the Sea: Saltworks by Motoi Yamamoto

Detailed Information
Project Name	Saltworks	Posted in	Sculpture	Artist	Motoi Yamamoto

A pioneering contemporary artist, Tokyo-born Motoi Yamamoto carves monumental two dimensional sculptures of entire oceans, shattered planets, typhoons, mountain ranges, fractured staircases and vast plains of brain-like coils using just the one medium: SALT. Although striking, his works are far from being merely aesthetic. Every one of the artist’s saltscapes is an experience in its own right, and one of a highly metaphysical nature for the artist as well as the viewer. Yamamoto’s works have been shown across the world from Russia to the United States and his most recent salt Labyrinth will be on show until 9th Novembe 2014 at the Parisian gallery La (Deuxième) Galerie Particulière.

Regarding his work, the artist has said that: ''Drawing a labyrinth with salt is like following a trace of my memory. Memories seem to change and vanish a