Ken Yonetani

Ken Yonetani was born in 1971 in Tokyo, Japan. He lives and works in New South Wales. He received a Bachelor of Economics in Japan, and worked in the Foreign Exchange Market in Tokyo for 3 years. Following this, he was an assistant for 3 years under a pottery master, Toshio Kinjo, oldest son of Jiro Kinjo, National Living Treasure of Japan. He moved to Australia in 2003 and had the first solo exhibition at CSIRO Discovery Centre in Canberra with 2,200 ceramic tiles featuring endangered butterflies that were then stepped on and broken. He completed his M.A. at ANU School of Art in 2005. He was selected as a finalist in the Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, twice of the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and The 2009 Blake Prize. He has held numerous solo and group exhibitions, including solo shows at West Space, Melbourne then at Artspace Sydney in 2005, His large scale of installation/ performance work 'Sweet Barrier Reef' in The 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art was a huge success and got a wide range of media attentions. He was selected in 'Once Removed' the group show representing Australia at the Venice Biennale 2009 (Satelite project).

Exhibitions

Sweet Barrier Reef in Venice - 2009

Venice Biennale 2009 Once Removed - curated by Felicity Fenner "Yonetani's carefully staged white sugar sculptures are rendered in a language that seeks to codify the damage caused by human disengagement from the natural world. The aesthetic framework for his practice is drawn from Asian culture, particularly cultural traditions that make a spectacle of ordering nature, such as the Japanese Zen garden. The particular type of garden cited in Sweet Barrier Reef is called Kare san sui, which dates back to the 15 th century. These gardens were made in accordance with Zen visual and spiritual principles. Yonetani is interested in the Kare because it is a dry garden, made entirely from stones rather than living plants. Like the Kare garden, the orderly design and lack of colour in Yonetani's installation suggests a kind of living death, overseen by human cultural beliefs. Its sparse, serene arrangement evokes a postapocalyptic landscape in which everything is bleached white, perished. Here, the excesses of life are inextricably tied to self destruction and death. Yonetani's interest in underwater environments stems from his diving activities, which offer him firsthand experience of humankind's devastating impact on usually unseen ocean beds. Sweet Barrier Reef invokes the fragility of an ocean life exploited by industry, specifically the tragedy of coral bleaching. Referencing greed and consumerism, the coral sculpture forms made from sugar that sit on the raked sugar garden are sexed up, similarities to human genitalia deliberately exaggerated so as to lure and shock observers. It's a visually seductive work, the sugar promising sweetness while the sculptures' overt sexual imagery titillates. Yonetani explains that "Sugar represents human desire. I use it as a metaphor for consumerism. The sugar industry continues to increase production in accordance with growing demand globally for sugarbased products, which have, disturbingly, over the last century evolved from 'special treat' foods to staples of everyday modern diets. This reflects society's more widespread desire for instant gratification, so the sexual nature of my sculptures is also closely related to this idea of consumerism as a manifestation of desire. But coral is a living animal and its appearance can be very sexual, so as well as having metaphorical value, the sculptures are also based on coral forms I've observed when diving. Yonetani abandoned a career in Tokyo's foreign exchange market to study ceramics as an apprentice to a master potter in the sub tropical coastal city of Okinawa, where he witnessed the ecological 6 Interview with the author, 2008 crisis facing coral reefs. Okinawa, like north Queensland in Australia, is home to the country's major sugar industries, where sediment runoff from sugar cane plantations is bleaching and killing large sections of the coral reefs. Yonetani noted with a sense of foreboding that "Every time monsoon rains or a typhoon swept across the island, which was often during Okinawa's long summer, the emerald water would turn the colour of red, as soil, pesticides and fertiliser from nearby sugarcane fields were swept out to sea". Upon moving to Australia, the artist undertook research at the Institute of Marine Science, discovering that coral bleaching was having an equally profound effect on the iconic Great Barrier Reef. Five years on, the tragic predicament of the Reef is the focus of heated political debate around Australia's commitment (and lack thereof) to tackling climate change. Yonetani's work, conceived some years ago and presented in elsewhere in earlier versions, is suddenly one of the most politically timely and place specific contemporary art projects to emerge from Australia today. Sweet Barrier Reef describes the fatal consequences of using the natural environment as a dumping ground for consumer driven industry. In the context of this exhibition, the notion of self destruction as a result of human greed is parallelled in the threat posed by the tourist industry to the beauty and indeed very existence of Venice. Extending the consumerism metaphor, the presentation at the Venice Biennale of Sweet Barrier Reef is accompanied with a performance involving the consumption of coral decorated cakes by visitors." Felicity Fenner

Ken Yonetani - Sweet Barrier Reef in Venice #4

Ken Yonetani - Sweet Barrier Reef in Venice #3

Ken Yonetani - Sweet Barrier Reef in Venice #2

Ken Yonetani - Sweet Barrier Reef in Venice #1

Ken Yonetani - Sweet Barrier Reef in Venice #5

Ken Yonetani - Sweet Barrier Reef in Venice #6

Uncertain Landscapes - 2008

Ken Yonetani Born in Tokyo, Yonetani moved to New South Wales, Australia in 2003. In 2005, Yonetani completed his Master of Arts (Visual Arts) at ANU (Australian National University) and was awarded the Gunnery Studio Residency. In 2003 Yonetani covered the entire floor of the CSIRO Discovery Centre with 2000 ceramic tiles featuring endangered butterflies that were then stepped on and broken. During 2005 Yonetani was selected as a finalist in the Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and later went on to cover the entire floor of West Space, Melbourne, in the broken butterfly tiles as part of his installation Fumie-butterfly mandala. Sweet Barrier Reef, Yonetani's first major solo show at Artspace, Sydney, was a huge success attracting the attention of curator Felicity Fenner, who went on to include Yonetani's work in the 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Contemporary Art. Yonetani is now among a select group of four artists representing Australia at the Venice Biennale 2009 (Satellite Project).

Adelaide Biennial of Australian Contemporary Art - 2008

Ken Yonetani - Adelaide Biennial of Australian Contemporary Art

Sweet Barrier Reef - 2005

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