ARTWORKS
八木 恵梨 / Eri Yagi

Island of Collage
Year: 2020
Materials: Watson paper, pencil, transparent watercolor
Location: Room 205 and others
(Photos 1-3)

Octopus Altar
Year: 2021
Materials: Watercolor on Echizen washi paper, pencil
Size: 945mm × 570mm
Location: 2F Public Area
(Photo 4)

●Artist's Statement
This work consists of approximately 300 drawings related to Okinawa.
The “collage” in the title refers to the encounter of disparate elements and the resulting derailment or generation that occurs through such encounters. If encountering disparate things is collage, then tourism is also a form of collage. Therefore, I wanted to create something within a hotel room that allows for a form of tourism.
In the drawings presented in pairs, I juxtaposed elements that seem related yet unrelated, or unrelated yet seemingly connected. The framed drawings capture fleeting images that crossed my mind, confined onto a single plane in collage form. These, too, combine to form a larger collage. The way various elements combine and grow increasingly complex seems to symbolize the culture of Okinawa Prefecture, situated at the center of the Asian sphere. The Octopus Altar is one of three diagram works created as the culmination of ‘Island of Collage’.
It is drawn in pencil and watercolor on Echizen washi paper.
I depicted motifs related to the Okinawan sea following a fictional narrative: “The octopus displays its treasures like an altar, boasting of them.”
Owing to its many legs, the octopus has often been depicted as a symbol of greed (see: Roger Caillois, The Octopus: Exploring the Logic that Rules the World of Imagination, translated by Mikio Tsukazaki, Seidosha, 2019). Inspired by this treatment of the octopus, I have projected my personal memories of the Okinawan sea onto this work.