Because memories are fragile and easily distorted, Lynne Yamamoto casts hers as solids, in marble, slip ceramic and thick black thread. She grew up in Hawaii with no artists in her family save for a grandfather, who wouldn’t have called himself one. In his shed in his spare time, he carved dolls that carried his understanding of his cultural heritage.
What Do-Ho Suh floats, Yamamoto makes as heavy as a tomb.
Currently at Greg Kucera: GRANDFATHER’S SHED, 2008-10
Lāna’i City, Island of Lāna’i
Digitally carved and hand finished marble
Hawaii is a symbol of an easy life, with fish crowding the seas and fruits ripe for the plucking, and yet, following World War II, canned goods became a staple, particularly (and inexplicably) Spam. Yamamoto’s rendering in vitreous china gives the cans the purity of Communion wafers.
PROVISIONS, POST-WAR, Pacific Asia and U.S. (Sardine), 2007-10
Vitreous china
PROVISIONS, POST-WAR, Pacific Asia and U.S. (Spam), 2007-10
Vitreous china
Just as human immigrants came to the island in waves, displacing the first peoples, insects immigrated with them, pushing the original occupants out of their niches. Yamamoto’s work is so beautifully crafted and physically recessive, it hides as much as it reveals. The exception is her embroidery on found doilies, which she displays from the back side, with black knots providing the relish of a coarse vitality: Dollies undone.
INSECT IMMIGRANTS, AFTER ZIMMERMAN (1948), 2009-10
Embroidery on found doilies
Camamponotus maculates (carpenter ant)
Through Oct. 2.
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