Yuna Yagi Solo Exhibition, Visual/Cognition/Polarity/Universality

Dates｜ April 29 (Fri) to May 28 (Sat), 2022
＊ Closed on Sundays & Mondays (Open throughout Golden Week)
Venue｜ √K Contemporary 
Admission｜ Free
Organizer｜ √K Contemporary
Cooperation｜ FLAT LABO

｜On the Exhibition｜

The exhibition presents early to latest works from the artist’s career.

Marking its debut, Yagi’s latest series presents various abstractions of sand dunes. Printed on acrylic and steel, the series seeks to refine the notion of a photograph. As the light reflects through the translucent acrylic blocks of the work, the work begins to alter alongside the viewer and their shifting viewpoint(s). As if looking through a lens, the viewer is offered a range of sights; from one of limitation to that of great depth, and that of nothingness. Drawing attention to the relationship between light and human vision, Yagi’s works reveal the biased and constructed nature of “vision”.

In the face of the pandemic, Yagi traveled to the vast lands of sand dunes in search of nature Through this, she formed a perspective through her vision and viewfinder. Manifesting these subjective “misalignment(s)”, these works reveal the incongruities of vision and compel viewers to reflect upon their own experiences and perceptions.

What is “it” that I actually see, how is “it” captured by “vision” and “cognition”, and how can this information be both “biased” yet exist intrinsically within us? Perhaps the “things” one recognizes can alter with their state of mind.

As the physical process of “seeing” and “perceiving” undergoes continual changes in an increasingly digitalized society, these works compel us to reconsider the meaning of “existence” in the realm of human experience.

｜Artist Statement｜

Visual/Cognition/Polarity/Universality

The act of “seeing” involves the process of obtaining visual information and the sensual recognition of said information. The process of “seeing” also maintains the paradox of two biases.

The first bias regards the personal, cognitive bias of how “real” visual information is recognized, occasionally corrected in the brain, and idealized from reality. In other words, vision consists of the cognitive process of focusing on details, a biased perception, and an obscured generalized focus.

The second regards the relativity bias of whether we recognize the same visual information from reality in the same way as others. This goes beyond the subjective questions of shared experiences and addresses the interpersonal, phenomenological notion of whether we feel and see the same thing. One could say that the biased conviction of what is subjectively perceived and the conviction that many people perceive the same thing are two noncontradictory notions.

In June 2020, shortly after the state of emergency was lifted, I visited the sand dunes in search of nature.

There, I saw a vast, sand-filled landscape with a horizon so deep, it briefly resembled a mirage. Looking further, I could see the border (horizon) between the sky and sea, which never seemed to touch. On the ground, I was able to trace high-resolution fragments of natural landscapes through the traces of the wind and the wave particles made visible by the sand. The difference between the vast landscape before me and the limited details of the (camera) viewfinder causes optical/visual shifts. Reinterpreted by the mind, the beauty of the sand dunes surpassed reality.

Occasionally, when you look at something, you might experience a sensation that goes beyond what is perceived. Sometimes “things” become idealized within us through visuals/cognition. However, we simultaneously maintain the conviction that we view the same “things” as others. Aren’t these notions of Visual/Cognition/Polarity/Universality equivalent to ideas of mind/belief?

In this current situation where varying emotions and beliefs are divided by events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War, I want to demonstrate that there is a possibility to “see” the same “things” in spite of the overarching existence of Visual/Cognition/Polarity/Universality.

―　Yuna Yagi