Jacob Hashimoto
Using sculpture, painting, and installation, Hashimoto creates complex worlds from a range of modular components: bamboo-and-paper kites, model boats, even astroturf-covered blocks.
His accretive, layered compositions reference video games, virtual environments, and cosmology, while also remaining deeply rooted in art-historical traditions notably, landscape-based abstraction, modernism, and handcraft.
During his second year at Carleton College, he took a printmaking class, changed his mind about his career, and decided to send an application to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
[2] It was during his senior year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago that he began to make the kites that would appear in much of his later work.
This initial experience with the kites created a means for him to shift from his position as a college student to a real-world artist.
[3] After graduating college, Hashimoto began working as a preparator in the Ann Nathan Gallery which allowed him to continue pursuing his personal art at night.
Upon viewing the installation, the chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Richard Francis, approached Hashimoto with an offer to display works in the cafe at the MoCA.
[2] In 2013 the installation Superabundant Atmosphere was presented at Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden, to run from June 2, 2013 until October 13, 2013.
[4] Because his pieces are produced from a vast number of kites, Hashimoto enlists the help of various assistants from friends to employed workers.
He mainly follows his intuition, allowing the paper to respond to the ideas he generates in his head and the emotions he wishes to communicate through his work.
The blocks are then arranged on the floor in a grid format, replicating the movement of water that has been frozen in this seemingly fragile form.
[5] The original idea was to hang 700 smaller balls of light from the ceiling that would place the viewer in a digital reality.
[5] Another part of this exhibit was a giant two-dimensional piece against the wall, made in 2008, named Diving Deep and Surfacing.
[5] Other, more 2-dimensional kite works that were displayed in the Landscapes of Vision exhibit included Hodge Podge, 2008; Grassscape, 2008; Descending Yellow Halo, 2008; Field of Green Blocks, 2008; Water for Elephants, 2008; Superliner, 2007; Velocity of Desire, 2008; Redshroom, 2008; Field of Yellow Blocks, 2009; Odds and Ends, 2008; Far Rockaway, 2009; and The Return, 2009.
Staring at a Rothko piece gave the idea of standing in a literal field of color and Hashimoto wanted to replicate that.
For example, during his time at school, much of his work reflected the styles of Robert Ryman and Agnes Martin and he adopted the strict grid format from both artists.
[2] Inspired by Jessica Stockholder and Ann Hamilton's ability to turn a painting into a sculpture, Hashimoto took the first steps to surrounding and involving the viewer directly.
