fabulous forests.

I recently saw some of these works here in NY by the artist Yuken Teruya and they are astonishingly lovely. You may have trouble understanding what is going on by the images because even in person it takes a moment for you to understand...but Yuken is taking found shopping bags, cutting a detailed and accurate version of a tree out of the bag and then folding that cut out into the bag. You see the area cut out at the top of each bag.

Beautiful - and conceptually quite strong.



Yuken states:

Pizza Boxes, a McDonald's bag, Flags, Desserts and Toilet Paper rolls... when these items become artworks, they also easily become political... if you find unexpected shapes and colors from the toilet rolls, they become something else. Without criticizing the present, I prefer to find new clues to problems that are likely to polarize.I feel that my work shouldn't only have the function of conveying the artist's message. My works have a right to simply be beautiful or offer any kind of attraction.

The precision and drama in the presentation of the work is satisfying to the viewer and inspiring to the artist in me.