Stone on Boundary Concave to Convex , Stone on Boundary Convex to Concave 2023
River stones are cast in copper foil and attached to mesh spheres.This sculpture was created using the shape of stones, which symbolize the accumulation of time.
Magma born from inside the earth hardens, and stones are carved and shaped by the flow of rivers, such as sediment deposits, creating riverbeds as they follow the surface of the earth. The stone is molded with copper foil to show the shape of the outside and inside, as well as the amount and time of the parts that have been carved and will be carved. The simple method of covering a stone with copper foil to preserve its shape suggests that it is impossible to understand everything, as it is only possible to reproduce part of the stone. Copper, a material that functions inside the electrical appliances that support our lives, transforms into works that capture time and space, boundaries and voids, front and back.
Distance between Presence and Absence Werdenberg 2023
The cylindrical translucent polyethylene sheet bag contains various types of containers and lights. These include historical items from the castle's collection, commercially available ready-made items, and items found in the apartment during the residency. Apples, potatoes, and onions hang from the ceiling. The bag is repeatedly inflated and deflated by a fan controlled by a timer. When the bag inflates, the container inside becomes invisible and the food on the ceiling is swallowed. As the bag deflates, the shape of the container inside is gradually revealed.
Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by COCA.
Yasuaki Onishi
Japan
Born in Osaka, Japan in 1979, Yasuaki Onishi currently lives and works in Osaka. He studied sculpture at University of Tsukuba and Kyoto City University of Arts. He received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2025 and 2010, and United States-Japan Foundation Fellowship that included a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in 2010. Through his experience with making molds, became interested in relationships between positive forms and negative space and in grasping not only objects themselves but also their surroundings. His works have consistently dealt with the themes of margins, volumes, and boundaries.
Selected recent solo exhibitions include: Stone on Boundary, Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Salt Lake City, USA, 2025); Stone on Boundary, Pola Museum of Art (Kanagawa, Japan, 2023); Permeating Landscape, Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art (Las Vegas, USA, 2019); Reverse of Volume, Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Kimball Visual Arts Center at Weber State University (Ogden, USA, 2019).