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Whimsical Wooden Miniature Homes of Yukihiro Akama
Akama’s background as an architectural technician, educated at Tohoku University of Art and Design in Japan, adds another layer to his work. Having designed a house in Japan, surrounded by native Japanese trees, he aims to encapsulate a sense of place in his art, particularly focusing on woodland forest settings. His move to the UK in 2011 led him to Yorkshire, drawn by its picturesque landscapes, providing the backdrop for his alternate lifestyle and career as a maker, the title of this exhibition: basho no kankaku (a sense of place).
The process of bringing Akama’s pieces to life involves sketching on off-cuts of Oak, Walnut, Sapele, Iroko, or Maple. Each piece undergoes a transformative journey, culminating in a blow torch treatment, polishing, and oiling.
Somedays I am more centered than others. Today was one of the others. When the tank is empty, I join my significant-other (my MacPro) and search for something that I like and think you might too? Tonight I discovered Elephant Rock, a natural rock formation on the Westman Islands archipelago, located approximately 7.4 kilometres off Iceland's south coast. It fascinates visitors because it resembles the head of a giant elephant which has submerged half its trunk underwater in an attempt to quench its thirst with the Atlantic Ocean.
The likeness is complete with a cleft in the rock where the creature's eyes would be and the resulting shadow bestows an eerie and lifelike quality upon its face. Fundamental to the rock's realistic appearance is the fact that it's entirely made from basalt, but this makes the "skin" of the creature appear wrinkled. I was particularly amazed at the aerial view above. Did you know about this? Did you find it interesting?
This is where I too-often go down the rabbit hole. I wondered if there was a term for it, and there is a name for this uncanny ability to see faces or things: pareidolia (roughly, from the Greek for "wrong shape"). Human brains are exquisitely attuned to perceiving faces, there is an entire region of the brain called the fusiform gyrus that is dedicated to it. Its functions are evident even from early childhood: Studies have shown that shortly after birth, babies display more interest in cartoon faces with properly placed features than in similar images where the features are scrambled. A short Elephant Rock video, here. But the a few more clicks and I was learning more, like some artists have purposely exploited our natural predisposition to see illusory faces: Salvador Dalí's Paranoiac Face features a woman's face comprised of a hut and seated villagers.
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Wednesday's Smiles ...
