Osamu Yokoyama

Exhibited at Art Gallery of South Australia

The aesthetics enshrined within the material of bamboo – its lustre, strength and resilience, represent the foundations of Japanese beauty. Bamboo, however, is not simply a material suited for the creation of traditional arts and crafts. Rather, a new generation of artists have wielded the material with a new-found vigour, breathing life into its unique textures as a compelling material within contemporary art. Osamu Yokoyama (b. 1980-) is one such artist, who finds within bamboo an ideal material for self-expression. For it is within its bends and curves that one can find the meandering, ethereal and poignant vicissitudes of life itself. Yokoyama does not hail from a storied lineage or distinct tradition. Instead, he was a graphic designer who eschewed a salaried position to delve into the world of bamboo, taking his wife and young daughter to Beppu, the mecca of Japanese bamboo art, and apprenticing to leading bamboo artist Jin Morigami.

Using only madake bamboo indigenous to Japan, Yokoyama differs from his contemporaries in that his works are predominantly ‘bound’ rather than ‘woven’, thereby allowing the artist to create large, sculptural forms that are almost architectural in their dynamism, accentuating the raw and material beauty of bamboo. Much of the techniques used by Yokoyama are self-taught inventions used to augment and shape bamboos in ways that would traditionally be frowned upon. Incredibly, he does not draw any designs or sketches before weaving, and like a jazz pianist, “improvises” on the spot and weaves a certain form within a single theme while suspending the bamboo in mid-air. It is during the dialogue with his material that the artist finds the final form of his work.

Direction: Gakuto TANO

Camera: Yuma Maehara
Gakuto Tano

Editing: Gakuto TANO

Production: A Lighthouse called Kanata