Yuka Oyama
Encapsulation Suits
Yuka Oyama, Encapsulation Suits, 2015
With a background as a jeweler Yuka Oyama is interested in what an object does to a person and what a person does to the object: How does a static object influence its wearer? Is it the material value of an object or is it the agency within that works the wonder? This intertwined relationship between the subject and the object is of core interest to Yuka Oyama.
With an experimental approach Oyama has constructed a series of blown up sculptural artifacts shaping them into wearable suits. Through photographing them and filming them in movement, Yuka Oyama explores what she describes as the stubborn life of objects.
In the video installation Cleaning Samurai a group of cleaning utensils perform basic karate kata movements. In the series Encapsulation Suits Yuka Oyama examines objects that have personal ties to her own life. Through becoming one with the sculptural objects she manages to disclose their subjectivity while at the same time exploring the gap between object and subject, between art and life.
The exhibition consists of the video installation Cleaning Samurai, a series of wearable sculptural objects entitled Encapsulation Suits, the video performances Modern Ballet Duo and Trio and the performance-based paintings Helmet - River.
Yuka Oyama, Encapsulation Suits, 2015
Bio
Yuka Oyama was born in Tokyo 1974 and grew up in Malaysia, Japan, and Indonesia. She received her BFA (Jewelry and Light Metals) at Rhode Island School of Design in the USA and MA at Munich Art Academy (Art Jewelry and Sculpture) in Germany. She lives and works in Berlin and Oslo.
Encapsulation Suits is part of Yuka Oyama’s investigation as a research fellow at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme, where she has been enrolled since October 2012.
The exhibition is supported by the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme, the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and Norske Kunstforeninger.
On September 9 starting at 6pm there will be a conversation between freelance writer and researcher Jorunn Veiteberg and Yuka Oyama
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Jorunn Veiteberg is a freelance writer and researcher and currently a visiting professor at HDK - School of Design and Crafts, University of Gothenburg. For her work as a writer, she has received both The Foundation for Design and Architecture in Norway's and Norwegian Arts and Crafts' Honorary Award.
Yuka Oyama, Encapsulation Suits, 2015