Zelda Goes to the Gallery: The Power of Semiosis

French-based Japanese artist Yohei Yama lights up Vin Gallery with a feast of colorful Op art canvasses during his debut exhibition, The Power of Semiosis.

It was November 2011 when Yohei Yama heard the news of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in his native Japan. As the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, the meltdown of the Fukushima Power Plant started a media frenzy, sparked the already controversial debate about environmental issues put forward by anti-nuclear movements and terrorized people around the world whose memories of the Chernobyl aftermath are still vivid.

“When Fukushima happened, I was so shocked and could not paint for many days. […] I felt very sorry for our nature,” explains the self-taught artist in a video interview incorporated in the exhibition.

The Power of Semiosis is Yama’s intimate response to Fukushima as well as a personal healing process. “Suddenly, the motif of small trees came into my mind,” says the artist. “I don’t know why but more energy flowed, reviving me. Then I realized: this is healing for me, for people, for the nature which humans destroy.”

Starship Earth by Yohei Yama, acrylic and ink on canvas, 91 cm x 117 cm.

Caption:

Drawing upon the Op art of the 1960s, tiny trees are carefully arranged on spiral, square and rectangular geometric schemes to fill the 20 medium-sized canvasses. The imperceptible flux of the trees and the gradation of the bright colors create an illusion of movement which has a shimmering effect on the viewer. However, Yama explains, the optical effect was accidental. “I’m not trying to make something psychedelic but, I don’t know why, at the end of the process it had an optical effect,” he says.

In fact, after feeling disoriented and pulled back and forth by the paintings, it becomes clear that this is not Yama’s attempt to investigate the potential of optical illusions. As soon as the viewer’s eyes adjust, the richness of the detailed compositions draw the viewer closer to reveal both the infinite and multiple representations of the trees. The artist makes his trees move and flow as the wind changes. “The wind is a very mysterious element because we cannot see it but we can feel it,” the artist explains. “I use the light to depict the wind.”

PHOTO: http://imgur.com/v4TfiYh

Time Has Born by Yohei Yama, acrylic and ink on canvas, 97 cm x 145 cm.

The play of light used to recreate the movement of the wind always starts from a different focal point and is clearly more visible in some paintings than others. In Time is Born, it takes the form of distinct outward radiations. In Wind, it is curling in on itself, giving the effect of multiple scratches on the canvas that resemble the waves created by wind on a river; in Light Wind Tree, the light seeps through the thick forest towards the center of the canvas.

Wind by Yohei Yama, acrylic and ink on canvas, 97 cm x 145 cm.

It is truly captivating how such a simple concept could be reinterpreted so painstakingly and recall the spirit of nature through such abstract compositions.

At the heart of the exhibition, there is the artist’s intention to reconnect with nature, and each painting is charged with strong and vibrant motifs to glorify the ephemerality of the subject matter.