AQUA: PAESAGGI IMPERMANENTI #7, #8, #9

1997 | found stones, carrara marble dust, gesso di Bologna | Galleria Graffio, Bologna, Italy


When I created a mineral dust installation in Galleria Graffio's courtyard, I was unsure about the appropriateness of this outdoor setting, given the installation’s fragility. On the first day, a bird left drawings on the white field of Carrara marble dust. The second day, wind brought in flower petals from a nearby tree. Insects created delicate line drawings. The third day, a viewer picked up a petal, pondered his act, and gingerly placed the petal back in the exact same position. The fourth day, I noticed moss had begun growing on the work. The fifth day, an intense rain washed away most of the Bologna’s gesso powder and part of the marble dust, laying bare the structure of the work, the stone installation. Nature had revealed itself as my collaborator.

Shinji Turner-Yamamoto's works seem to evoke a very slow, still evolving cosmogony. The stone sculptures, the landscapes of marble powder, the frescoes are the metamorphoses of a world that continues to be born, bearing within the traces of what was. [...]


I lavori di Shinji Turner-Yamamoto sembrano evocare una cosmogonia lentissima, ancora in divenire. Le sculture con le pietre trovate, i paesaggi di polvere di marmo, gli affreschi, sono metamorfosi di un mondo che continua a nascere, portandosi dentro le tracce di cio' che è stato. [...]

Rosalba Pajano


photography: Marina Giannobi