Hino gallery is pleased to present "Going to the Timberline" by Yutaka Torao from Monday, January 15th, 2024.

The journey of life can be compared to climbing a mountain, and Torao may be one of only a few artists who could include his 'sculpture' as part of this analogous metaphor. He began working mainly with stone in the 1980s, and most of his works are created by the sensations he perceives from nature, such as forests and mountains, and the scenes he feels and sees there. The act of stone carving, in which natural materials are used and carved little by little, seems to have something in common with mountain climbing, in which one goes into nature and aims for the summit step by step, but Torao has continued to create his works in a unique way by interacting with these two activities, acting as his own mediator.

Torao says that in recent years, he has begun to "insert dynamic words (verb) in some of the titles of my works" in order to "capture a complex of continuous scenes in the action of approaching from the foot to the top, guided by some beautiful mountain area," which is connected to his previous attempts to reconstruct with stone blocks any scenes and fragmentary images he perceived in his mountain experiences. However, this time, he says, he tried "once and for all to eliminate these methods of expression.” Rather than seeking to create a composite image in stone, he aimed to create a work that was more physically driven, and in the actual mountaineering, which served as input for his creation, by restricting himself to more internal, self-directed, repetitive activities, such as limiting his mountain range, traversing the peaks for days at a time, and making a single summit return again and again, he hoped that his physical sensations gained through the activities would somehow manifest themselves in the stone. This is an attempt to be more direct and concrete than the artist's previous methods, which were based on images and scenes that are subject to change, and the dynamic words contained in the titles of the works also make their connection to the body even deeper. These actions may seem like Shugyo- deep mind-body training, but as the title of this exhibition suggests, Torao is convinced by his past experience that only after reaching and surpassing a certain realm can he come into connect with a world and expression that has yet to be reached, and perhaps this is why he keeps moving forward and creating works.

In terms of his life, Torao will leave the educational field he has worked in for many years in March, marking a major milestone in his life, but he does not seem to have a sense of ease and tranquility, at least not for this exhibition. Rather, he shows a willingness to go the extra mile to break new ground. Please come and see how this attitude is manifested in his new works.