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Remembrance of Time
Yumiko Yamazaki uses natural elements and the passage of time to create art that serves as a metaphor for the human experience of nature. In order to create this metaphor, she uses copper plates placed below ground level to record the interaction of the living soil, plant life, and insects underneath the earth with the metal. In the 1990’s Yamazaki experienced a debilitating illness that kept her confined to her home for several years. She has very little memory of this “lost” time. She remembers marking time in her room by the growth of the houseplants. This observation has served as the inspiration for all of the work she has created since 1999, when she regained her health. Yamazake is a conceptual artist who uses nature as her collaborator to create works which reveal the subtleties of our experience of time.
The artist will document her process with photos which will be posted on her personal website. Then, after three weeks, the artist will unearth the copper plates and use them as printing plates for a series of large-scale prints. She will also create a series of sheets of handmade paper incorporating all living things that grew above the buried copper plates.
The Chinese philosophical concept of Yin and Yang is an important component of Yamazake’s work. Three of the copper plates were buried in shady, hard to get to locations on Winthrop campus (Yin), and three were buried in high-traffic, sunny locations (Yang). She is interested in seeing if the resulting corrosion on the plates is different given the different character of the locations. After meticulously polishing each copper plate Yamazake carefully places each plate in its respective location, then covers them with soil. This almost ritualistic process is an attempt to capture a record of the artist’s time here with the Force of Nature project. The resulting works are a composite of all of nature’s elements as they act on the earth, the plates, and the artist.
Patience is an ally in this artist’s toolbox. She eagerly awaits the growth of the smallest blades of grass or plant forms, yet she knows that nature has its own time scale. She is not interested in controlling nature with her projects. Rather, she seeks to allow nature to do what it does. Waiting is a necessary artistic activity.
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