Risako Yamanoi, Places, 2021, watercolor, gouache, colored pencils, and graphite on paper
Risako Yamanoi is a visual artist based in Helsinki. She has completed her master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki. Her work explores personal feelings and memories which remain unseen and marginal in everyday life.
To create the work, I thought about the choices I made, and about how those choices affected my identity. Then I started thinking that the things I did not choose or I have not got yet could be equally important as the choices I made. Perhaps what makes me who I am is not only the things I have now but also the things I have lost or I long for. It feels somehow natural to me to think that way.
In this project, 100 letters were sent to the friends, relatives and acquaintances of the organizing team. The letter described how much we missed their hugs, which had been withheld for a year due to COVID. The addressees were asked to send us an item of clothing that was old, worn out, and had seen its last days in their closet.
READAn Equivalence of Our Distance
I find the topic of artist residencies and friendships very personal and relevant for me as an artist. At any residence, time always seems to run out and eventually, people leave for different roads. The image hints at moments where activities have been interrupted: food is on the table, sketches and supplies are wide open, and the outdoor space flows into the interior.
READFive timeframes, countless companionships
I did the work improvising it along the way during spring and summer 2021. The picture resembles a message or a notice board. There are small bits of drawing/painting/text done on a piece of paper that I had with me for some months in my backpack. I liked the idea that the image and the paper have aged - that the passing of time has left its marks on the work.
READIt is Only the End of the World
The starting points of this work were related to relaxation and finding one’s own space. The picture has direct and indirect hints from which you can deduce the soundtrack of the illustration.
READWhat Would I Rather
