Take Your Remodeling With a Grain of Salt
Written by Jennifer Heyns
Remodeling is somewhat like DNA and snowflakes - no two are alike. Every once in a while, though, we run across someone who has taken the industry to a whole new level. Japanese Artist Motoi Yamamoto has found his medium in grains of salt - billions and billions of grains of salt.
Yamamoto adheres plain table salt to floor surfaces, creating extremely intricate patterns & landscapes. The result is pretty amazing and can be a dizzying optical illusion if you stare too long. To prep, the artist draws the most complex mazes and labyrinths imaginable, plotting out his design.
He feels that since every living creature on earth consumes salt in one form or another, his artwork is a metaphor for the common goals and needs we all share while inhabiting and intermingling on this planet. The artist himself is motivated by human curiosities and finds inspiration in life, death, meditation and memory.
Yamamoto’s work gives the feeling of flying over vast landscapes by plane - within the enclosed space of a home. His creations are for exhibition only and aren't meant for permanent floor design, which is fortunate, because it'd take just one mildly rude friend to undo hours upon hours of work. The artist is perfectly OK with the temporariness of his toil and sticks to the philosophy that his designs will “last as long as they last.” And when they don’t, the eco-conscious Yamamoto has requested that the curators take the several pounds of salt from his works and return it to the ocean. A fitting send-off for an unusual medium.
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It looks stunning in these photographs. I would like to see it in person. Also knowing it strength and durability would be helpful as gee, it does look fabulous.