Ko Kirk Yamahira

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Ko Kirk Yamahira

Opening: Friday, March 8, 7–10pm (with a short performance at 8pm)

“I consider that the subjectivity is formed through the repetitive process of deconstructing the existing objects, and ruminating on such process. There is no specific aim to find a meaning, neither in the creative act itself, nor through the creative process. The totality of the meaning can be found in the continuation of the process. Therefore the reason for the creative act would be found in different inquiry.

The obsession of pursuit of the meaning is unlocked by the pure enjoyment of the creative act. The obsession in turn would release the meaning of the search by forgetting the initial inquiry. There are innumerable ways to enact the process, however there is one answer to the result of the process. Within the answer contains two opposing perspectives that has no hierarchy. The point of view, both subjective and objective, as well as the scale of the perception would affect the location of the answer. I sense the distance to the answer gets ever more shorter as I repeat the inquiry.

The answer certainly exists in the past and it could simply be overlooked. The past always has the potential for the new discoveries for me. Since the inquiry originates within my mind, thus the approach to look and find the answer can change completely. It shifts while depending of my state of mind. So it is both firm, as well as transient. Creation of the artworks comes after my deconstructive process on already existing canvas, separating vertical and horizontal threads.” - Ko Kirk Yamahira

For Seattle-based artist Ko Kirk Yamahira, the finished painting is a beginning rather than an end. Painstakingly removing individual threads from the weave of the canvas, Yamahira deconstructs his paintings, turning surface into form. He often disrupts the geometry of the canvas’s hidden support structure as well, cutting out sections of the wooden stretcher bars to create detached segments bound by loose thread. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Tokyo and London, Yamahira moved to Seattle from New York in 2015. He has exhibited in galleries in the United States and Japan, both individually and as a member of the artist collectives Art Beasties and SOIL.