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Material Works, 2006

Since the beginning of her artistic career, Yuri Shibata has been interested in the question of boundaries between herself and nature.  She asks, “How much of nature is in me, and how much of me is in nature?”  And, “How much is me; and how much is no longer me?” These are the philosophical underpinnings that inform all of the artist’s works.  To answer these questions, the artist immerses herself in the ephemera of her surroundings. A number of performance-related projects have led her to examine various environs and filter that experience through tangible works of art that convey a more accessible and potent message to the viewer. This concept is best exemplified in a series of prints made from daily collections of dust from museum galleries. She has also ground pigments and prepared paints from natural materials such as cherry blossoms and her own hair. This paint was then used to produce an image of the object that was destroyed to make the paint.

For her exhibition at Davidson, Shibata has chosen to present several related works in a variety of media with these common themes. Shibata collected the dust from the Davidson Galleries each day and produced a series of Dust Prints, each representing one day’s accumulation. Because dust is made up of decaying human skin, among other things, the human trace is contained within it.  We all return to dust at some point, and these prints provide a playful reminder that our days are numbered.  Air is a complex work involving the videotaped breathing of a series of naked subjects.  The artist asks her subjects to relax and breathe deeply for her session.  These images are then projected down onto a specially created latex screen that breathes along with its subjects.  Shibata emphasizes the point that we are all born naked, and die naked; yet during life, we all share the act of breathing.  This installation reinforces the commonalities of all peoples, here Japanese and American, yet reveals the individual distinctiveness of each subject.

Material Color works involve the harvesting of some natural material (hair, kudzu, etc.) to be ground into pigments and made into paint.  The resulting paintings are both of and by their subjects.  One cannot conceive of a more completely representational art form.  Material Work: Hair involves the artist creating a painting of her hair with her hair.  At the opening reception, the artist will cut her hair in the amount represented in the painting. The circularity of logic involved in the conception of this work finds echoes with the works of other artists in the Force of Nature exhibition.

For Shibata, the world around us is an extension of ourselves.  Her curiosity about our boundaries brings into question the very nature of human nature.

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