Different events in our life influence us in varied ways and each one of us has our own personal way of dealing with grief. Some like to withdraw from society for a while and others try to be more boisterous to masquerade the pain within. But Motoi Yamamoto has found his own unique way to deal with the loss of his sister who was 24, back in 1996. He was a student of art at the Kanazawa College of Art, when he lost his sister to brain cancer. It was then that he developed a unique art technique where he exclusively works with salt to create sculptures and even intricate mazes that will just blow you away.
Salt is a symbol of purity in many cultures across the globe. It is also in essence a symbol of life giving forces and cleanses us of all evil. Maybe this is what drew Yamamoto towards using of salt as his chosen material to work with. According to the brilliant artist, his intricate mazes of salt and flowing work are drawn from his memories and are a representation of those that lay in his mind; both conscious and unconscious. By giving them varied shape and forms he observes how his own memory changes, evolves, forgets a few things and adds a few things with each passing day.
This gives the art of Yamamoto a very surreal feeling and he uses old oil filled plastic bottles with holes to create most of his work. And like a true Zen master, once his work is done he requests those in charge to return the salt to ocean, allowing it to complete a ‘full circle of life’. The more you look at the work of this genius and listen to his approach towards art and life, the more you will get tempted to believe that he is as brilliant a philosopher as he is an artist..
Via: Dailymail
