Devils in the Details

While monochrome painting in modern art may have started as a joke, monochrome art in Japan has a long-stretching tradition, one which Ritsuko Yamashita fits very neatly into. Existing somewhere between woodblock prints and pages from a modern manga her pictures are technically carvings on canvas, intricately detailed and painstakingly produced. While she does occasionally dally with the odd colour, the majority of her work muses on the potency of pure white combined with eye-popping detail.

Thinking about it, Yamashita’s work could be much easily rendered with a pen, brush, or any other utensil for that matter. But it seems like the technique and the process (working with a heated needle) are an intrinsic part of her art. Yamashita’s best work on display here features her imaginary urban otherworld, populated with her cone-headed worker drones of no distinct nationality. ‘Pooh-pooh pipe’ is the lone appearance of the drones this time, busying themselves in what is either a ruin or construction site.

As always Yamashita herself keeps an odd distance from the world she creates, choosing neither to judge them, or apply any meaning to their existence. They simply exist. ‘Ammonia’ and ‘Tanneurs’ are both set in industrial areas. Her line work gives both scenes a run-down, dilapidated feel with plenty of ambiguous fragments for the viewer to puzzle over.

Some of her newer work on display sees her taking the simplicity several steps further, removing almost all detail and leaving only a white spill with a seemingly random word stenciled in English. With such intricacy on display in some works the contrasting emptiness of space and meaning in others is unfortunately, glaringly obvious.

The only work here from previous years is one which isn’t technically on display. Tucked away just outside of the exhibition space is ‘Jinjang Hotel’, a wonderfully rendered factory scene, bathed in brown and looking all the more textured because of it.

As an introduction to Yamashita’s work the collection works well, but for those who have already seen a glimpse of her otherworld a more comprehensive collection will really show what the artist is capable of.