A Room for Modular Landscapes
a solo exhibition of new sculpture and prints installation
NOVEMBER 13 - DECEMBER 12, 2021
mh PROJECT nyc is very pleased to present a new body of sculptural installation “A Room for Modular Landscapes”, by Hawaiʻi-based artist Jonathan Yukio Clark.
PROJECT STATEMENT
We often think of the landscape as a stable entity, rooted in one location, with the only instances of change manifesting through the gentle iterations of the seasons. But perhaps the landscape is something much more transient, an imprint we carry with us, stitched into the fabric of our being and always ready to reemerge in our perceptions of the surrounding world. The installation, “A Room for Modular Landscapes” interweaves elements of sculpture and print as both vista and architecture, looking to disparate mountainscapes as recurring points of familiarity, cross-generational recollection, and natural transformation. The components of this grouping of work are largely collapsible, with elements that reference Japanese architectural motifs and self-defined mementos of heritage that together build a hybrid interior and exterior.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My studio work has unfolded from an early focus that searched for intersections of my own personal heritage and the complex layering of Hawaiʻi’s particular cultural dynamics. I researched Japanese culture in an effort to relearn the knowledge that my family had lost over the generations, and I found myself drawn to aesthetic forms such as the obi (sash) and byōbu (folding screen), which then expanded into architectural motifs such as the yukimi shōji (snow-viewing window) that were built into larger structures. These forms can be opened, folded, or altered in conversation with their surroundings, varying the imagery that occupies a space as an allusion to changes in nature. Windows, silk, and washi paper filter light through the works, lending them a permeability that echoes a fluid relationship between the domestic and natural worlds.
Across a variety of disciplines, each vein of my work becomes a different exploration of the same fundamental impulse. I often look for instances where I can pull the fragments of memory within me into physical existence. The indelible presence of landscapes, histories of previous ways of life, and imprints of family members now gone are all things that inform my interpretation of the present, and they remain with me wherever I go.
Born and raised on the island of Maui, Jonathan Yukio Clark is a multi-disciplinary artist working in sculpture, printmaking, painting, textile, and drawing. He received a BFA in Painting from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA in Studio Art from New York University, in addition to spending time as a research student in printmaking at Kyoto Seika University. After several years in New York, he has now returned to Hawai‘i and is Exhibits Coordinator at Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Schaefer International Gallery. He has exhibited at venues in New York and Hawai‘i, and his work is included in the Art in Public Places Collection of the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
http://www.jyclark.com/
https://www.instagram.com/jonathanyukioclark/?hl=en