Artist : Motoi Yamamoto

One of the comments made on my last post about installation artist, Jean Shin, was by Kristin L. She had a great question: How do installations move around? Of course, each exhibit varies but Motoi Yamamoto's salt installations have a very unique answer to that question.

Labyrinth by Motoi Yamamoto. March-May 2012

Incredible, no? But when you see these in the scale of a museum, they're even more amazing.

Labyrinth by Motoi Yamamoto.
September - December 2012

Yamamoto began this series after the early death of his sister at the age of twenty four to brain cancer. He had worked in other mediums, like glass, but it was at her funeral in Japan that salt began to play a role in his work. Salt is thrown over your shoulder as part of a purification ritual after a Shinto funeral. His first works were made in private as a way to remember his sister.

Labyrinth by Motoi Yamamoto.

As Yamamoto began to work in the medium, he learned so many other important human needs for salt: for humans health, as a food preservative, even as a form of money. I just read yesterday the word salary comes from sal i.e. salt when salt was used as currency during roman times.

Labyrinth by Motoi Yamamoto.

These installations have also become a sort of labyrinth, a symbol of being born and life itself. How fitting then to have a labyrinth made of salt. Yamamoto says he often has at least one vivid dream of his sister when working on each piece.

Labyrinth by Motoi Yamamoto.

Regarding installation, the museums and galleries are often open during his slow on site process of making each piece. He often works up to twelve hours a day to complete a piece. Here's a video showing the installation in progress.

And at the end? All of the salt is returned to the sea during a public ritual called umini kaeru. It was a janitor at an exhibition in South Carolina that thought it was tragic to simply throw the piece away and suggested a ritual should take place.

See more of Yamamoto's works on his website. His work can be seen right now in the US, at the Laband Gallery at Layola Marymount College in Los Angeles until December 7th. I feel honored to have visited his hometown ten years ago in Kanazawa, Japan. A beautiful town by the sea, I can see how this city could have inspired him.