I have never wanted to become an installation artist more than after I encountered Yasuaki Onishi’s work. His constructions are so achingly simple yet absolutely breathtaking and consume and engulf spaces and viewers that enter into his spaces. I am intrigued by his use of light and minimalistic approach to his choice of materials because the source of lighting seems to be quite pivotal in the way his sculptures are perceived and how it affects the space they occupy; the materials he uses very accessible and not unnecessarily combined with or embellished with fancy machinery or other mediums.
The way that he grapples with and explores positive and negative spaces, spaces that do and do not exist until he conjures them and makes them artistically relevant like in “Reverse of Volume” where the plastic sheet suspended from the ceiling is molded to impressions of cardboard boxes that were once beneath it, consequently creating this negative space underneath what could be an impressive mountainous landscape. Or the way in which he conjures up spaces within spaces through shadow casts on walls, allowing the viewer the freedom to roam around and bask in this ethereal and unreal setting, perceiving the ‘space that doesn’t exist’ and experiencing it as they see fit. Visitors walk in and out of his contemplative spaces, observing how the simplest qualities of light, shape and line change. I am absolutely inspired by the simplicity of his aesthetics due to the distinct lack of colour and how his installations such as “Vertical Volume” evoke a sense of peace and calm within the viewer because of the expansive stretch of translucent white material.
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