Yasuaki Igarashi
Artist
Born in 1978 in Chiba Prefecture, Yasuaki Igarashi graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School with a Master’s Degree in 2005. With the help and cooperation of local people, he modifies scenery in various regions by connecting his art to local life and culture in aesthetic and sympathetic ways. So far his projects include sailing to Micronesia from Japan by yacht (a distance of about 4000km) in 2005, as well as voyaging 970km along the Sea of Japan coast in 2012. These experiences formed the basis of Igarashi’s “Perspectives from the Sea.” Signature works include Kusukaki an art project started in 2010 which is located in a forest of camphor in Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine (Fukuoka Prefecture) and designed to last a thousand years; Sora-Ami (Knitting the Sky) which reflects local life and landscapes as a large fishing net made and erected together with local fishermen (displayed at Setouchi Triennale 2013 / 2016); and Kumo-yui (Tying Cloud Knots, Japan Alps Arts Festival 2017) for which Igarashi symbolically connected a lake and the clouds with braided cord, with the help of people living in the mountains. Bundling Time was his project for Antarctic Biennale 2017, held at the South Pole where all the times zones of the world converge.
Together with the Biennale’s global gathering of people, Igarashi plaited ropes using pieces of string, each representing the meridian line, and used the ropes to fly kites together.
http://igayasu.com