Yabuuchi Satoshi

Genetic Memory

My work as a sculptor reflects a desire to give shape to everything I can see, feel and think–to try and express the spiritual world through a simple view of nature. I do not believe in the supremacy of mankind; we are simply a single aspect of a comprehensive whole that includes not only animals, plants and all organic life forms, but also inorganic objects such as rocks or metal that are not believed to harbor life, natural phenomena such as mountains, rivers, oceans, the sky, clouds rain etc.–even the sun, the moon, the stars and everything else that forms a part of the universe.With regard to life, I do not accept that we just suddenly emerge into this world from out of nowhere. A large proportion of our physical and mental attributes come from our parents who had in turn inherited them from their parents, each generation forming a single link in a chain that stretches back to the beginning of creation. The countless beings who were my ancestors down throughout the ages may have met to love each other or to eat each other. Through love they created a new life; through eating, two life forms merged, part of them being excreted to nourish yet more life. This is what religious people call reincarnation and what scientists refer to as the food cycle.This philosophy is typical of the kind of traditional outlook on life shared by the people of Asia, and similar theories may be found in the writings and stories of ancient Europe, Africa or the native Indians. For this reason, I feel that even before such concepts as science or religion became established in society, people shared an instinctive understanding of true meaning of life.No matter how original they may try to be, artists throughout the world can only exercise their creativity within the context of their genetic memory. My own genes contain several thousand years of memories, not only of Japan, but of Asia in general; and, like it or not, I am forced to work within the limits these impose upon me.My sculptures owe their origins to the culture of ancient Chinese civilization. Not only are China and Japan very close geographically, but from the earliest times, China has had a profound influence on Japan both politically and culturally. China was as powerful in the East as Rome was in the West, absorbing culture and ideas from around the world then passing them on to the surrounding countries. In this respect, the role it played could be said to be similar to that of the Mediterranean culture in Europe, or even to the influence American culture has on the world today. Even things that seem uniquely Japanese can be found to have their roots in ancient China and, for this reason, it can be said that my works can be traced back to their roots in China, Eurasia and even India.

Animals

Animals are also an important subject of my work. As I said earlier, I believe that fundamentally there is no real difference between humans and animals and it is mere chance that I happen to be born in human form in this world to act out my current personality.As a child, my greatest friend was a dog. I have raised numerous dogs during my lifetime and was at their side when they died. I have also kept and studied numerous other small animals, but I feel that my relationship with them was much closer when I was a child than it is now. I do not use a model when creating my animal sculptures, I simply recall the feel of them that remains in my hand and let them take shape naturally.

Continuity

My works are not all individual, complete expressions; in some of them, the subject moves very slightly in each work to create a movement in a way similar to that used in motion pictures. My aim is not to create stationary shapes, but rather to try and produce an expression of the passage of time.Sometimes I will use two objects to express a single situation. Active and passive, positive and negative. In the work showing five children, each pronouncing one of the vowels or the series of a dog walking, the modification and flow of the shapes creates a expression of time passing. Also, in an effort to show they live in a different time axis, I sometimes depict them appearing suddenly from out of a wall then disappearing back into it again.

Technique and Materials

I would like, now, to give a brief description of the techniques and materials I use in my work. When Japanese talk of sculpture, we generally think of wooden Buddhist statuary. It is said that Japanese culture can be traced back for approximately two thousand years, during which about ninety percent of all sculpture produced has been made of wood; metal, stone or other materials account for the remaining ten percent. Historically, it can be said that the Chinese worked mainly in stone and pottery in their formative arts while Koreans preferred stone and metal. Although these two countries are very close geographically and resemble each other spiritually and culturally, the choice of materials has been strongly influenced by the natural environment and character of the inhabitants.In Japan, the preference for wood was not confined solely to sculpture; a similar ratio can be seen in architecture, crafts and everyday utensils. My works are all carved from Japanese cypress, a conifer native to Japan, and then coated with lacquer — a beautiful kind of paint derived from lacquer tree sap. They are then colored using mineral pigments mixed with animal glue. This technique was developed over one thousand years ago in the production of Buddhist statues and other crafts.I also employ two techniques, developed in traditional Japanese sculpture, to produce the wooden base for the carving: Kiwari and Yosegi. Kiwari is a method by which each of the sections of the statue can be calculated to the same ratio, thus allowing the wood to be cut to the necessary lengths. The wood used in sculpture is not a single block, but is comprised of several lengths of rectangular lumber joined together to create a strong base. This not only means that no wood is wasted, but also that the various sections of the figure can be separated and worked on simultaneously by numerous sculptors. This is what is known as Yosegi.The use of these techniques made it possible to create standardized, highly finished buildings or sculptures in large quantities in a short time. Although these techniques were developed approximately one thousand years ago, they are very similar to those used on production lines today. In order to prevent the works from splitting as the wood dries, statues are split in two and the wood on the inside removed making them hollow. This technique is known as Uchiguri.The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston house superb collections of old Japanese art, and the majority of the wooden Buddhist statues they have on display were made using the same techniques. Although the sculptors of Buddhist statues still use these traditional techniques in their work, I think it is safe to say that there are very few other people who use them in contemporary art. I learned them through the experience I gained working on the renovation of approximately forty old Buddhist statues and I continued to use them today, not in a traditional context, but in contemporary art.

1 2 3 4← Previous Page Next Page →