Saturday 22 October 2016

We Have Just Found Another Unusual Medium,

for artists to use, 


salt, Motoi Yamamoto refers to himself as a “Salt Installation Artist.” Working with a tool that resembles a baster he sculptures in three-dimensions,

 in the west we think of salt purely as an aid to cooking, although as a kid I remember that if you knocked over the salt shaker it was customary to take a pinch of it and throw it over your left shoulder,

 but in in Japan it’s an element of the Shinto tradition that symbolises purification, and it plays a fundamental role in rites surrounding death, you may have also seen sumo wrestlers throw salt in the ring before starting a fight,

His latest installation is on view during the SetouchiTriennale 2016 on the island of Takamijima. “Floating Garden” was created on the 2nd floor of an old Japanese home, and is “reminiscent of the tidal currents around the Shiwaku Islands, interspersed with spirals signifying rebirth and eternity.” as in standard Yamamoto tradition, the sculpture will be destroyed, and the salt returned to the sea, on the final day of the festival: November 6, 2016, I would never have thought to use salt as a medium, but there it is.


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