Review „Moemi Yamamoto: Prequel“
April 2024 – art magazine Flash Art (Czech & Slovak edition) print no. 71 “Contemporary Young Painting”
ENG translation
Moemi Yamamoto (*1985) presented her third solo project under the title Prequel. This step seems to be quite unusual - it is rare for artists of the younger generation to exhibit older works (in this case it is a series created in Japan before studying at the Academy of Fine Arts). It is therefore encouraging to compare these works with the current ones and to examine what changes have taken place.
One of the most noticeable differences upon entering the exhibition is the overall tonality and textural softness of the works on display. Although Yamamoto's scenes generally take place at dusk, this time their depth is aided by the technique itself - oil on canvas is replaced by a combination of pastel, handmade washi paper glued to wooden panels and tea or coffee brew, with some drawings complemented by organically shaped wooden frames. All of this, along with the nature themes, at first glance evokes an atmosphere of homely serenity. But this idyll breaks down the moment we start to interpret the content of the individual drawings.
The tension built up in this cycle exists against the backdrop of a unifying motif, which, in addition to the use of the exterior, is the motif of water. Water is often associated with the depths of the subconscious, changeability and fluidity; it can also be seen as a symbol of life and birth. Thus, through Yamamoto's typical visual mixture drawing on influences from Gothic, Renaissance and Surrealism, we see forest swamps or lush gardens of temples around which the water surface brushes. The world of plants, animals and people slowly merges, crossing the threshold of everyday reality and growing into landscapes imbued with eroticism, mysticism and the sacred. The hypnotic nature of the water element is then most clearly shown in the mysterious figure with a shell for a face: one time he silently supervises bathing women (Paul Delvaux's The Terrace could be a counterpoint), the other time he poses for a portrait lesson. Beneath the surface of these works, however, one can suspect invisible underwater currents that make their existence fully known in contemporary paintings such as The Place Where You Become Me and I Become You (2022), Who I Am, Where I Am (2022) and Bath (2023).
When the author lets it be known that she desires to portray a feeling like looking absently at the flow of a river, that she wants to show things as they appear, she approaches the Japanese phrase "bon'yari shite" - "to look without bias, without prejudice". And this is what Moemi Yamamoto succeeds in doing. In doing so, she skilfully employs the Japanese parallel perspective, which, unlike linear perspective, does not focus on a vanishing point in the distance, but allows one to find oneself directly in the scene - to have the scene below, above, around one, to be part of the tension that adds to the dreamlike intricacies Yamamoto narrates through her drawings and contemporary canvases.
