"Yohichi Sugama's Artistic Expression"
Yohichi Sugama seeks to channel the innate curiosity of his childhood, the harsh realities of life, and his acute observation of nature into his art. His works offer viewers an opportunity to deeply contemplate the finitude of life and life's inherent challenges.
As a six-year-old, while looking up at the sky from a grassy spot behind his apartment complex, Sugama experienced a profound fear that the moving clouds would cause the building to collapse. During the same period, he fervently pedaled his bicycle with friends towards the distant rainbows. The curiosity and experiences of venturing into the unknown, which we all encounter in our youth, fuel his creativity.
At the age of 18, he was diagnosed with an intractable disease. Throughout the five years of treatment that followed, he came to reevaluate the world he inhabited. At 28, he enrolled in the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts where he continued to explore his surroundings through the medium of installations.
In his installation works using lockers, created from 2008 to 2011, he delved into themes transcending life and death. His art underscores the fragile balance between the inception and conclusion of life, demonstrating the inherent fragility of human existence.
Sugama currently perceives the world through human eyes as extremely confined. Through his art, he endeavors to articulate these limitations and the intricacies of the world around him. His works undoubtedly invoke a sense of "small adventures in daily life" for the viewer.