Yuji Hombori “Passion

Yuji Hombori “Passion - Mihotoke”

Gallery Yamaki Fine Art

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Yuji Hombori has created a variety of buddhist statues and structures with ordinary materials such as cardboards and wrapping papers, sometimes exhibited as large-scaled installations. His first solo show at Gallery Yamaki Fine Art will gather lively works such as Aizen Myouou, a dharmapala who presides over love and leads us to awakening, under the theme of “Passion.” Yuji Hombori was born in Kobe in 1958. Having finished graduate school in the Department of Sculpture of Aichi University of the Arts, he has energetically engaged in his creative activities while teaching art in his hometown. His turning point was an opportunity to create works with waste woods from a shrine, which led him to Buddhist statues. Constructed to sticking together pieces of second-hand cardboards, they look transparent from the front as if filled with the light of grace. Meanwhile, seen from the side, they turn into masses consisting of complex layers and sections. This gap between the lightness of the material and the volume as a statue gives his work a peculiarity as well as peacefulness. Through his creations, Hombori’s works make us aware that it is important to let items consumed in our daily lives be “reborn”. However, it does not mean that he is just engaging in recycling or environmental movement, but that his creation is based on the idea of “metempsychosis.” This idea derives partly from his experience of a huge earthquake in Kobe in 1995, which made him feel reluctant to use first-hand materials. This exhibition will show his recent works including a monumental work more than 2 meters in height.