How to make a mountain sculpture – Japanese Mountains

2012-2014
"Mt.Iwate" lambda print 87x58cm (paper size 95x66cm), Wood (Yew) 23.5x16.5x15.5 cm
"Mt.Asama" lambda print 87x58cm (paper size 95x66cm), Wood (Wild cherry) 32.0x18.5x17.2 cm
"Mt.Yari" lambda print 87x58cm (paper size 95x66cm), Wood (Styracaceae) 29.0x15.0x11.0 cm
"Mt.Tanigawa" lambda print 87x58cm (paper size 95x66cm), Wood (Chestnut) 30.5x21.0x18.5 cm
"Mt.Bandai" lambda print 87x58cm (paper size 95x66cm), Wood (Oak) 30.5x14.5x14.0 cm
"Mt.Fuji" lambda print 87x58cm (paper size 95x66cm), Wood (Japanese pagoda tree) 30.0x15.0x13.0 cm
"Mt.Youtei" lambda print 87x58cm (paper size 95x66cm), Wood (White birch) 21.5x14.5x15.5cm
"Mt.Tsurugi" lambda print 87x58cm (paper size 95x66cm), Wood (White birch) 27.0x15.0x16.0 cm

The “How to make a mountain sculpture” series is a project in which the artists sit at the foot of a mountain and, while beholding the mountain spread before them, carve wood sculptures of the mountain into a piece of firewood. They began the project in 2006 while living in Switzerland, and have since carved sculptures of the mountains in the Swiss Alps such as the Matterhorn and the Eiger. In the photographs to be displayed alongside the wood sculptures, the artists are depicted together with the scenery, facing the magnificent mountains and constraining themselves stoically to “observing, then creating”, which can be considered the origin of art.
Following the Tohoku earthquake that struck while they were living in Berlin, Yamashita + Kobayashi felt a greater need to direct their gaze toward the nature of their homeland and have since been touring mountains across Japan, creating sculptures.

EXHIBITION

2018 Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan

2015 Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan

2014 hiromiyoshii roppongi, Tokyo