Is art that echoes nature "eco" art? This is one of the many questions that the work of designer/artist Tokujin Yoshioka explores.
In recent years, Yoshioka has made a habit of cleverly and elegantly recreating aspects of nature in his installation works. In 2008 he simulated "clouds" by hanging tens of thousands of thin white fibers from the ceiling of Tokyo's 21_21 Design Sight. In 2011, the main work that most people remember from the "Sensing Nature" exhibition at the Mori Art Museum was his "Snow" (2010), a 14-meter-long tank filled with millions of feathers, occasionally blown by a large fan.
For his latest show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, he has brought together a group of works that evokes winter. Titled "Crystallize," the show presents the visitor with a countless number of white straws piled up to create the impression of snowdrifts. This provides a backdrop and connecting motif for several works made from a crystallization process that, in some cases, resembles what happens under extreme Arctic conditions.
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