Yonemura Yuto: BAROM and/or several long stories

Yonemura Yuto’s artistic practice centers on sculpture. Inspired by his affection for mythological gods and superhuman heroes from 1960s and 1970s Japanese TV shows, his sculptures feature dismembered figures haphazardly arranged in pieces that nonetheless somehow maintain balance. His work seeks to undermine the inherent majesty and perfection of classical sculpture, erasing its sublimity.

The title of the exhibition references a 1970s tokusatsu TV series called Chojin Barom-1 in which two young boys merge together and become a superhuman who fights evil forces. The “several long stories” alludes to Yonemura’s creation process and various highly personal anecdotes as well as the history of sculpture from Greco-Roman times to the present. This incorporates both a sense of awe toward the sublime embodiment of beauty evident in classical sculpture and the artist’s love-hate relationship with sculpture sparked by a kind of aversion to that tradition.

Yonemura employs classical materials and techniques (casting, stone statues, faux bronze, relief, etc.) in contemporary ways to create original sculptural works. Faux bronze, for instance, is a means of achieving a bronze-like finish by applying colored resin to polystyrene foam. He makes his reliefs not from wood or metal, but Styrofoam, a material more conventionally used for building insulation inside walls.

Through such approaches to his practice, Yonemura is examining fragility, failure, and imperfection, attributes antithetical to the strength, splendor, and sublimity of many statues and their emphasis on masculinity.

Comprising new and old pieces with a focus on sculpture but also including video and music works, this exhibition alternates between personal stories in which the artist’s everyday life intermingles with a kitsch aesthetic shaped by a contemporary sensibility, and the long, uninterrupted history of sculpture. Behind these stories we glimpse the artist’s sincerity toward his work and a vision of our reality today.

The Triangle
The Triangle is a space newly created for the reopening of the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art. It aims to nurture emerging artists, especially those associated with Kyoto, and to provide opportunities for museum visitors to experience contemporary art. In order to connect the artist, museum, and viewer in a triangle and deepen those connections, the space hosts an eponymous series of special exhibitions and presents new artistic expressions from Kyoto.