Yoshinori Yano矢野義憲

We will have the solo exhibition of woodworker Yoshinori Yano, which has been postponed since last November.

This exhibition will be more important to Yano, who was forced to take several months off due to an injury sustained just before last time.

A huge 2,000-year-old sacred tree is enshrined at a shrine in Fukuoka Prefecture.

The branch of the tree, which had been on his mind for the past ten years was finally allowed him to face it after this gap of time.

Yoshinori Yano has started his career as an artist about 20 years ago, when he exhibited large works in museums and shrines.

Perhaps, at that time, he was not bound by anything, but simply was facing the “wood”.

In this exhibition, Yano puts aside the tools and vessels he has been making in recent years, and returns to his roots, tree by tree, in the process of creation.

When I visited his studio for the first time, I couldn't take my hands off his bowl with countless expanding carving lines for a while.

Stacked in his large chair curved from a single tree, I watched the light and air wavelengths of the place visualized by his work of leaves swaying overhead and the rippling shadows of his long chair by the window.

今展は大きな意味をもつものになりました。

福岡県のとある神社に祀られている樹齢二千年の巨きな御神木。

制作に追われた10年間、ずっと手元にあり気掛かりだったその木の枝に今回の空白の時間を経てようやく向き合える心持ちになれたといいます。

今から約20年前、美術館や神社の空間に点々と大きな作品を展示することから矢野義憲は作家としての活動をスタートしました。

そこにはおそらく、何に囚われることもなく只々ひたむきに向き合い生まれた「木」の姿だけがあったはずです。

今展において矢野さんは、近年作り続けてきた道具や器を一旦脇に置き、原点へと回帰するように、一木一木に向き合い制作を進めています。

静かな彫り目が無数に拡がる器から暫くのあいだ手を離すことができず、一本の樹から彫り出された椅子にすっぽりと包まれながら、頭上に揺れ動く木の葉のモビールと、窓際に置かれた長椅子の波打つ陰影がその場の光や空気の波長を豊かに可視化するような光景を恍然としながら眺めていました。

矢野さんにはそんな物を作って欲しいといつも願っています。