Yumiko Yamazaki Solo Exhibition "Backside of the Sky"
September 20 -26 ,2004
Sakai City Cultural Hall,l Gallery Shoubu 2

- Back Side of the Sky -

The works for my "Back Side of the Sky" series are etching prints made from copper disks.

The copper-disks were used as a part of installation artworks "Sky Project in Sakai, Japan" and "Sky Project in Sumter, South Carolina, USA". For these projects, I put 12 copper disks on the ground for one month in each location, Sakai, Japan, and Sumter, SC, USA (Public Art Installation Exhibition: "Accessibility 2003").

The action of nature in each place, Sumter and Sakai, made the etching on the plates. I made the prints of both Sumter and Sakai with the same conditions, using the same paper and ink to make both sets of prints. It is important that I make all of the prints with the same conditions. In this gallery, I am going to show all of the prints that I made in Sumter and Sakai.

During the exhibitions in Sakai and Sumter, the top surface of each copper disk reflected the sky of each place. On the backside of the copper disks, rust appeared by natural occurrences. By making prints with the backside of the copper disks, the etching made by the rusting appears more clearly.

The rust is the same or not. We can realize what is the same or different between the individual disks and what is the same or different between Sumter and Sakai.
I am thinking that I want my print works to lead people to see the conclusion of "Sky Project, the passage of time and influence of Nature," like an experiment of science.

"Back Side of the Sky"-Prints by Yumiko Yamazaki
Essay by Jane Ingram Allen

This series of etching prints by Japanese artist Yumiko Yamazaki are concrete visual representations of the passage of time and the natural conditions of a particular place. These prints show in a beautiful and poetic way the results of time and nature on twelve copper disks. The disks were placed on the bare earth in Sumter, South Carolina, USA, in September 2003 and in Sakai City, Japan, in May 2003, as part of Yamazaki's ongoing "Sky Project."Photo documentation of Yamazaki's "Sky Project" installations in Sumter and Sakai are included in this exhibition. The artist has also placed one disk from the Sumter installation and one disk from the Sakai installation on the floor in the gallery. The gallery show includes 12 etching prints made from the twelve copper disks displayed in Sumter and 12 prints from the disks that were displayed in Sakai.

The "Sky Project" is a multi-faceted conceptual art project that involves the public display of twelve highly polished and reflective copper disks arranged by the artist on the bare ground of a particular place for a prescribed length of time. The earth is prepared before the disks are placed by carefully and systematically cutting a precise hole in the grass or other ground cover to expose the bare earth and removing all plant materials, scraping the earth flat so that when the disk is placed, it will exactly cover the earth and be level with the ground. The site for each installation of the "Sky Project" is chosen by the artist to expose the disks to a clear view of the sky and give opportunities for public interaction with the artwork. Before installing the disks, the artist laboriously polishes each disk by hand using the same methods ancient Japanese craftsmen used to create traditional decorative and functional mirrors from copper and brass. The surface of the copper disks is highly reflective, and when placed on the earth, the disks reflect the changing appearance of the sky in that particular place and time. The public interacts with the reflective disks, perhaps noticing the sky in a new way, seeing their own faces and other people, animals, the surrounding landscape, buildings and other things reflected in these mirrors on the earth. These public interactions as well as daily views of the changing sky are photographed by the artist to become part of the documentation of "Sky Project."

The disks are left on the earth during the exhibition to be etched naturally by the action of nature. Rain, humidity, heat and cold, soil differences and other conditions in each place and time cause the backside of each disk to be etched differently. Because soil conditions and weather are different in South Carolina and Japan, one can see both differences and similarities in the disks and prints from each place. Yamazaki is using nature as a partner to create the art. Some things are controlled by the artist in this process, but much is left to natural occurrences. This work is rather Zen-like in its concept, and there is no attempt to change nature or control nature; the artist merely waits for the natural action to occur.

After the exhibition and the prescribed length of time, the artist removes the disks and uses the backside of each disk to make etching prints. The etched copper disks are inked and printed on heavy handmade paper using a normal printing press and printmaking methods. The prints are beautiful works of art where the particular actions of nature and the skills of the artist come together to make us see the invisible -back side of the sky.-

Jane Ingram Allen is an American artist, art critic and independent curator working in Taiwan through July 2005 with a Fulbright Scholar award and special grant from the Taiwan National Endowment for Culture and the Arts.