Motoi Yamamoto’s Salt Drawings Are An Incredible Testimony to The Artists Love For His Sister
Motoi Yamamoto‘s Saltworks are an incredible testament to love, the artists love for his sister. He began using salt as a medium after his sisters death from brain cancer and since then the incredible installations – he makes in her memory – have been seen all over the world. Salt might seem to be a curious choice of material but in Japanese culture it is an indispensable part of the death ritual as it imparts purification to the body and soul.
Salt seems to possess a close relation with human life beyond time and space. Moreover, especially in Japan, it is indispensable in the death culture.
It is the role of salt in his culture and the nature of his sisters illness that led Yamamoto to begin creating temporary pictures of the brain out of salt. This journey of his, this attempt to reconnect with his sister, remember her through the process of work has led him to create amazing drawings which confront the viewer with the reality of death.
Here’s what he has to say about his work:
Drawing a labyrinth with salt is like following a trace of my memory. Memories seem to change and vanish as time goes by. However, what I seek is the way in which I can touch a precious moment in my memories that cannot be attained through pictures or writings. I always silently follow the trace, that is controlled as well as uncontrolled from the start point after I have completed it.
What’s most wonderful about this work is that Yamamoto encourages the audience to take away the salt at the end of the exhibition and return it to the ocean thus giving life to the creatures of the sea. On an aside please make the effort to watch the video.
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