yasuaki onishi: reverse of volume RG at rice gallery

designboom has received images from rice university’s art gallery of an artistic commission completed by japanese artist yasuaki onishi for the school’s creative space. the suspended fabricated mountainscape is formed from two materials– plastic sheeting and hot-glue which has been dyed black. onishi shaped the floating sculpture within the gallery space by first draping the expansive plastic piece over hap-hazzardly stacked cardboard boxes, then removing the piled components following the white sheet having been attached to the ceiling by the quick-drying adhesive. this creative process or method is known to yasuaki onishi as ‘casting the invisible’ and aids in his artistic meditation on the reality of negative space.

an exterior view of the installation
all images © nash baker / courtesy rice university art gallery

rice gallery’s assistant curator josh fischer tells designboom: ‘onishi wanted to create an installation that would change as visitors approached and viewed it from outside of the glass wall to inside the gallery space. seen through the glass, the undulating, exterior surface and dense layers of vertical black strands are primarily visible. at first glance, standing in the center of the gallery’s foyer, it appears to be a suspended, glowing mass whose exact depth is difficult to perceive. upon entering the gallery and walking along the left or the right side, the installation transforms into an airy opening that can be entered. almost like stepping into an inner sanctum or cave-like chamber,  the semi-translucent plastic sheeting and wispy strands of hot glue envelop the viewer in a fragile, tent-like enclosure speckled with inky black marks. visitors can walk in and out of the contemplative space, observing how the simplest qualities of light, shape, and line change.’

the boxes which previously rested beneath the plastic sheeting give the material its voluminous shape

the plastic and glue built piece mirrors the randomness of shape seen in tectonically formed mountain ranges

looking up to the sculpture from directly underneath, the gallery goer may better observe the heat-formed texture of the plastic canopy

a detailed perspective of the hot-glue and plastic sculpture from an aerial perspective

close-up view of the inky-black adhesive suspension system

the artist at work