Higan wo Nozoku
I visited the three-person exhibition of Isana Yamada, Mika Yamashita, and Ayane Mukura. The venue is The Artcomplex Center in Shinanomachi — the largest floor, on basement level 1.
I went with Isana Yamada’s sculptural works as my main target, but he may have had the most works on display among the three.
Isana Yamada
Isana Yamada. The given name “Isana” apparently means “whale” in classical Japanese.
He is well known for a series of sculptures depicting whales — the motif adopted in his works — cast in transparent resin.
The piece Kikō (“Return to Port”) on view this time is set on the premise that the souls of a warship sunk together with many war dead take the form of a whale returning to port. So evocative.
The disappointing point this time was the lighting. Yamada’s whale sculptures change dramatically in appearance depending on the play of light, so in a group show like this it may be hard to bring out their full potential.
He seems to be actively producing drawing works as well.
Placing a two-dimensional work behind a sculpture made me want to have one in my own room. Depending on the lighting, a mystical space could probably be created. …Or rather, I’d have liked to see an installation of that kind.
I visited on the closing day, but as expected, sales of the sculptures seemed to be doing better than the flat works.
Mika Yamashita
Mika Yamashita’s presentation offered a wide range of works and was enjoyable.
Ayane Mukura
Ayane Mukura was an artist I was seeing for the first time. Her pencil drawings had distinctive works whose framing was part of the piece, and her drawings were especially interesting.
Summary
Perhaps to underscore the fact that this was a three-person show, works from the three artists were crossed-over and mixed together, but given the very different characters of each, I felt it might have been easier to view had each set stood independently rather than blending.
