I put twelve copper-plates on a ground in Sumter City (SC) USA. These disks are polished like a mirror. These disks will reflect interactive images, -the sky, cloud, the sun, the moon, trees, buildings, people, animals ,etc.
As time passed, the disks will getting cloudier and oxidize by component in water, air, etc.. At the end of the exhibition, these disks will not reflect the images celery. However, people will see the images on the disks will change just like a painting of the impressionism.
It is my purpose to make a documentary for the passage of time.

"Sky Project" is an installation with shiny reflective copper plates installed in the ground at a particular selected place. Yumiko has asked four Sumter residences to select the exact sport for each plate, and the artist placed it there to remain during the exhibition. This installation invites viewer interaction, and viewers can see themselves and the surrounding environment in the reflective plates. People become more aware of the changing sky and how it is the same yet different in many different times and place. The disks reflect the sky, people stopping by trees, animals,etc. The artist has documented with photographs people's interaction with the installation. During the month-long exhibition the copper plates will change and get cloudier and oxidized. At the end of the exhibition, the artist removes the plates and makes prints from each of the disks etched by contact with the earth to record the passage of time.

(From catalog of Accessibility 2003)

A photo documentary was made by cooperation of Sumter resident /Booth Chilcutt. He took photos and sent those to Japan.
You can see the photo documentation of reflected view on the copper plates and the passage of the time from his viewpoint.

"Accessibility2003 - From the Outside In"
September 27, 2003 - November 1, 2003
Sumter, South Carolina USA

"Sky Project" by Yumiko Yamazaki - Sakai City, Osaka, Japan

Yumiko Yamazaki was selected to participate in Sumter's unique annual Accessibility series by exhibition curator Jane Ingram Allen. The thematic Accessibility exhibition series features site-specific installation art that relates to the art, culture, history and environment of the host city, Sumter, South Carolina. Allenfs call for artists requested a proposal that responded to the theme "From the Outside In, and reflected an interpretation of Sumter as seeing through the eyes of the visiting artists.

Yumiko's proposal, "Sky Project,"was profound in concept and subtle in application. The "Sky Project" installation involved twelve shiny reflective copper disk that were placed in the ground on the lawn of our county Courthouse that is located on Sumter's Main Street. The location that Yumiko selected is in the geographical center of Sumter and is also the center of our local government and the "heart" of our community. The top surface of the copper disk reflected the images of the sky, trees, birds, citizens and, depending on the angle of viewing, our courthouse and other downtown buildings. The bottom surface of the disk remained in direct contact with the bare soil and became etched over time by the soil chemicals that are unique to the mid-lands of South Carolina and the Sumter area. Yumiko's work had both time-based and real-time components. The reflective surface of the disk provided the observer with beautiful visions of the sky, sun and clouds above the Sumter landscape. The bottom surface, in direct soil contact, was altered over time by the interaction of soil chemicals and copper and produced beautiful random patterns and designs that will eventually be recorded through Yumiko's printing process.

Yumiko's concept was for the people of Sumter to observe the skies, as reflected by the copper disk, above our community and to -see-and understand that the sky connects us all. An earlier parallel project in Sakai City, Osaka, Japan provided the citizens of that community with the same opportunity to view the sky and to reflect on the commonality of the world's populations. The uniqueness of the soils found in Sakai City and Sumter provided a record of those specific sites by the eventual printing of the etched surfaces of the copper plates.

As project co-director I had the opportunity to spend quality time with each visiting artist and I had the special honor of working closely with Yumiko Yamazaki and her installation, "Sky Project."Yumiko was a wonderful "ambassador," always taking time to explain her project and to share her culture and traditions with me and the others she encountered during her visit to Sumter. We were all very impressed by Yumiko"s quite intellect and artistic vision. I am honored to call her my friend.

Booth Chilcutt, Cultural Director-City of Sumter, South Carolina

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