Mizuma & Kips

Mizuma & Kips is pleased to present “BONSAI: A droplet in a hand” an exhibition by YAMAMOTO Masao beginning on Saturday, 8th January 2022.

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Yamamoto is well known for his tranquil and poetic, black-and-white photographs in addition to his installations.

This exhibition is composed of works selected from the series “BONSAI” that has started since 2018 and series of works from “Shizuka=Cleanse”. Yamamoto has occasionally likened his photographic work to Haiku poems.

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Yamamoto, who cherishes small things and trivial instances in life and who deliberately seeks for light within, states that he finds similarities between the two for the expressive method of representing the infinite breadth through minimal elements. Therefore, it was quite natural for him to have such profound interest in “BONSAI” which attempts to condense elements of nature and the universe into a limited spatial compass.

After finding out that his neighboring resident is a Japanese representative bonsai artist; Akiyama Minoru, Yamamoto has used this opportunity to be versed in various bonsai over the past few years.

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The founder of Sōtō school of zen, Dōgen wrote in his literary work “Shōbōgenzō,” that the single drop of dew holds the entire universe. The light that bonsai quietly radiates is a trace of flow and harmony from beauty that emanates from various elements of the world just like the roadside rocks and tree roots that Yamamoto has captured in the series “Shizuka=Cleanse”. To confront bonsai that is said to connect with the theory of “Eidos,” is to also confront with the trajectory of aesthetic pursuit that humans have sought to grasp from this world. We eagerly invite you to discover crystallizations of whispering dialogues amidst a minute universe, engaged in unknown corners of the world.