Yuka Otani

Period: 2017/01/06 ~ 2017/04/02

Nation: Japan

Genre: Sculpture/ Installation Birth：

My work creates a membrane that shifts viewer’s perception in physical and cognitive spaces. Through the lenses of phenomenological and sociological studies, I explore clear materials; primarily glass, water, melted sugar, and light. Those materials are indeterminate and elusive. They are poised for change.My interest for materials that shift from one state to other state comes from my earlier experience with economic bubbles and glass bubbles. I spent my adolescence in Japan in the 1990’s, when the immense Japanese economic bubble burst after the peak of its inflation. What seemed to be stable yesterday is not stable today–this drastic shift in social value system was branded on my memory as a strong feeling of changeability.As one of my artistic practices, I have been trained as a glassblower for a long time. My activity in a glass shop was a never-ending succession of making bubbles and breaking them. Eventually, I was determined to utilize the volatility of those physical and social bubbles in my work, rather than being afraid of them.Transparency and fluidity becomes important keywords in my studio practice. I juggle with vulnerability and unstableness during the creation processes. The transparency of the materials I use manifestos presence and absence at the same time. My installation sand sculptures change their appearance over the time, emphasizing dynamism of momentum.