Sachigusa Yasuda

Flying #25
2007
Digital Photograph
120 x 193.5 cm
(Edition 3/5)

Our feet – the parts of our bodies that receive the most constant contact with the earth at any given time – are constantly reminding us of and stimulating us with our own sense of touch. Yasuda’s images have been acclaimed for their capacity to help viewers recall their bodies in motion and her work has received a number of grants such as the SAISON Art Program Education Grant and Pola Art Foundation Overseas Program for Contemporary Artists.

This exhibition focuses on Yasuda’s works created after relocating to New York. The artist’s work from this period captures views from atop skyscrapers in a number of major cities like New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo. Yasuda painstakingly photographs over 300 individual images of the landscape and then mixes and reconstructs them into one cohesive image in a process reminiscent of ikebana. The resulting image offers a bird’s eye view of the scene possible only through the magic of digital techniques, and reminds viewers at once of the terrifying sensation of falling and the euphoric sensation of flying.

Unlike typically ‘beautiful’ bird’s eye view landscape photography, Yasuda’s works awaken all of our senses at once and help us to realize how deeply our sense of sight is intertwined with other perceptions at the core of our physical being. The artist’s original line of questioning posed from the soles of our feet has been flipped head over heels once again to reveal a new vantage point high above us.

Yasuda’s peculiar perspective offers ‘temptation from the rooftops’ of many popularly visited cities such as New York, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo and her works are a new medium designed to reawaken the senses. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition at Base Gallery.