Kumi Yamashita- City View

Kumi Yamashita

City View

Aluminum numbers with a single light source shadow

250cmx500cmx5cm

2003

Kumi Yamashita was born in Japan, and no currently lives and resides in New York City, New York. He attended Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, UK achieving a Masters in fine art. In 1999 and in 1994 he attended Cornish College of the Arts in Washington and earned a bachelor in fine art degree. He has achieved many awards in the US and Japan ranging from 1993 until 2003. He has also had many select single shows around the world from 1997 until 2003. Starting in 1999, he has had many select group and special projects up to this current year.

When Kumi was asked why he used light to create his work he responded by saying “Because light is beautiful. I love to see the solidness/ weight of materials and the ungraspable/ weightlessness of the light and shadow in my work”.

The piece of art, City View, is being displayed in a 30 story office building in Osaka Japan. The Shadow of the woman is overlooking a balcony on the second floor of the building; as though she is watching the people on the first floor go by.

I chose this piece of art because I felt that it fit in well. Kumi was able to use simple letter blocks and light to create a piece of art that is out of the ordinary. By using two simple matters, he was able to create a piece of art that gets my mind wondering. It is amazing that he can create elaborate shadows just by the placement of blocks.