Ryota Shiibashi
Sky Drawing - Atami 2024
My creative process begins with walking around the city. I move around on foot from the mountains to the sea, capturing photographs and trying to gain a deeper understanding of the area.
The photographs I take are then printed on Japanese washi paper. I manually cut out the sky along the outlines of the city and layer these cut-outs to create a collection of sky pieces that encapsulates fragments of the cityscape.
Atami, with its mountains and sea in close proximity, is rich in nature yet dotted with huge hotels and resort condominiums. I express my personal experience of Atami through the sky, weaving through the gaps between these structures.
Born to a farm family in Yokohama in 1979, he completed his BFA in Sculpture at Bunsei University of Arts in 2004. Shiibashi began creating detailed collages using mountains as motifs in 2016. Shiibashi has always believed in working by hand and his works are based on experience from visiting the actual sites. He participated in artist-in-residencies in Yokohama, Gwangju (South Korea) and Beijing.
