Takeshi Yasura

Takeshi Yasura explores a horizontal rather than vertical perspective in engaging with technology, living beings, inanimate objects and humans.Through his experiences, he became aware of exclusionary structures within society and the anthropocentric values that distort our relationship with nature. In response, he turns to Japan's ancient animistic worldview, which sees all forms of existence as spiritual entities.

His research is a reconsideration of the relationships between materials and their environments, and the agency of non-human entities. His approach draws inspiration from ecocriticism, which views matter not as passive, but as actively involved in the formation of meaning. This perspective resonates with animistic thought, which regards all beings as spiritual and seeks to recognise the value and relational presence of non-human entities. Through the integration, he investigates the ethical responsibilities that humans need to bear within the networks that sustain life.

Distilled is conceived as a space for listening to those who do not speak the language of humans. Here, agency arises not from human intent, but from the inherent activity of the materials themselves. Water responds to birdsong, setting the space into motion. Its interplay with light and sound gives rise to organic transformations. Glass evokes a boundary between "here" and "beyond" – not fixed, but fluid and connective, adding new layers to the space.

This structure echoes the cosmologies from Japan’s southern islands, such as Nirai Kanai and Obotsukagura,[1] which describe a continual exchange between the visible and invisible worlds. Distilled gives tangible form to this continuity, revealing matter as an agent that intersects with human experience and time. It quietly suggests that the world is not a fixed entity, but a phenomenon that is continuously generated through encounters and interactions.

Supported by the National Center for Art Research, Japan. The natural dye was kindly gifted by Društvo Bicka.

[1] Nirai Kanai refers to a spiritual realm across the sea in traditional Okinawan belief, said to be the dwelling place of deities. Obotsukagura, meanwhile, is a cosmological concept from the Amami Islands that signifies an origin world in the heavens. Both are considered places where this world and the otherworld are in communication, from which blessings and abundance are believed to flow.