Yusuke Asai “Daily Records-georgia, istanbul”
I visited Yusuke Asai’s solo exhibition “Daily Records-georgia, istanbul” at NADiff Gallery.
The show presents works drawn with water and soil sourced from each of the places he traveled to between spring and autumn 2018.
His journey traced the Eurasian continent: Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, the Republic of Malta, Spain, France, Germany… The works presented in this exhibition were made in Istanbul and Georgia. Two walls in the venue are filled with pieces from those two countries.
On the left side of the venue are the Istanbul works, and on the right are the Georgia works.
The exhibition space, which includes wall paintings so characteristic of Yusuke Asai, is wonderful.
There are also works painted on photographs taken by his travel companion and partner, photographer Maki Taguchi, and the atmosphere of what must have been an enjoyable journey comes through.
Many works are drawn on transportation tickets and admission tickets from the trip — very fitting for a solo show themed around travel.
The itinerary of the trip is laid out here.
Asai’s journey, in which works are produced one after another along the way, is truly lovely.
Many of the pieces are small in scale, offered at accessible, reasonable prices.
Plants and animals drawn with earth — a series of gentle, beautiful works.
Viewers too were invited to let their thoughts wander along the journey, traveling through Asai’s world.
