Jacob Hashimoto: Dreams No Dreams
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
June 7 – August 18, 2024
Jacob Hashimoto's latest works are a unique blend of seemingly endless streams of images woven together in infinite tangles. His art is a rich tapestry of visual references, ranging from East Asian crafts to Atari circuit boards and from the complex shapes of leaves to the architecture of churches and mosques from the plague era. This profusion of visual references raises intriguing questions: how can a limitless stream of images shape our identity? How does one create a sense of selfhood amidst the visual cacophony of the digital age? These are the themes that Jacob Hashimoto, a Japanese-American artist, explores in his work as he grapples with his fractured cultural heritage.
Jacob Hashimoto's art is a unique blend of sculpture and painting, combining the compositional principles of painting with traditional Japanese bamboo and rice paper handicrafts. His sculptures, made up of countless small paper kites, are not static objects but dynamic entities that subtly move and respond to the space and light around them. This interactive element, along with the myriad abstract patterns and carefully designed graphic details, creates a captivating visual experience within his organic, multi-layered spatial tapestries.
Jacob Hashimoto's exhibition presents a selection of his smaller works alongside a vast installation. Filling up the entire gallery space, the installation forces the viewer to adapt to its imposing presence, requiring us to dodge and watch our step. Thus, movement is brought into the space in a physical dance of give and take.
Jacob Hashimoto (b. 1973) has held numerous exhibitions worldwide at venues including the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Governors Island in New York, Turku's Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, and the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea in Rome. Hashimoto's work is found in prestigious collections such as the LACMA Tacoma Art Museum, the Saastamoinen Foundation, and the Schaufler Foundation. The artist is based in New York.
GALERIE FORSBLOM
Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki
