• YASUDA Masako

    CAREER1948
    Born in Hyogo, JAPAN
    1975
    Compleated Graduate school of master’s program of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Department of Sculpture
    1976-’79
    Studied at The Academy of Fine Arts of Roma, ITALY

    PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS:
    1998
    Gallery Okabe, Tokyo (’94)
    1997
    Aoyama Gakuin Women’s Junior College, Tokyo

    SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
    2006
    The 91th Exhibition of Nika, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (every year since 1979)
    AMABIKI 2006, Sakuragawa, Ibaraki (’03/ ’01/ ’99)
    1999
    The 24th Exhibition of Koku-Ten, Isetan Museum, Tokyo (every year since 1986)

  • Figure of Plant -Wooden Fruit-

    Zelcova, Mountain cherry

    75×180×70 (h)cm
    40×90×40 (h)cm

    When I stand in front of the raw wood, I often get the feeling that just a very little work on it could bring forth a good form.
    I worked on that kind of wood and created a single fruit.
    I took time to fill in the blocks and join the raw wood together, and by the start of summer the elaborate piece of zelkova wood had dried and become a powerful sculpture.
    I placed it boldly in a liberated space.

  • Figure of Plant -beans-

    Zelkova, Cherry wood

    35×230×110 (h)cm
    35×60×47 (h)cm

    This is a piece of keyaki, a Japanese zelkova wood that had been lying in my studio for ages. The rocks that were tangled within its roots were crushed up by the energy of its growth. As the days passed looking for a form, I developed an image of beans suddenly popping and setting down their roots.

  • Figure of plants

    Zelkova

    35×200×90 cm
    60×90×40 cm

    People offer one another raw walnuts in Germany at the start of fall. I brought a few uneaten ones home and planted them in the garden beside my studio. The following year, after I had forgotten about them, some shoots came up that looked right. When I had forgotten again, I glanced there and saw half the hard walnut shell rolling around at the bottom of the stalk. I borrowed the strength of the giant zelkova tree to express the form of that bud.

  • Flow

    Kiri wood

    250×250×60 cm
    120×120×40 cm, and others

    I found a grove that the sun penetrated into. I put together some boards I was carrying and thought about the image of circulating water. Departing from the usual forms, I continued this work up to the time of placement, and even now I’m arguing with myself about how to interact with this setting.

  • Big Petals / Moku gu

    Big Petals

    Kiri wood (Paulownia wood)

    200×60×40 cm
    180×130×40 cm

    Moku gu

    Camphor tree

    112×90×120 cm