AI YOSHIDA
Floating
APRIL 10 - 27, 2026
In Floating, Ai Yoshida brings works that have been formed within natural environments into the interior space of the city.
These works—shaped by wind, light, and the passage of time—have historically existed in relation to uncontrollable external forces.
Here, however, they are placed within a concrete space, sealed off from the outside world.
This shift is not merely environmental.
It fundamentally reconfigures the conditions under which the work exists.
Yoshida’s central piece, Brass Sea, unfolds as an expansive, membrane-like surface composed of thousands of delicate brass leaf fragments.
Functioning as a device that renders light and air perceptible, the work has previously manifested as an event—an experience that engages the viewer’s bodily awareness within natural surroundings.
What, then, emerges when this fluctuation is placed within a controlled environment?
Rather than the presence of wind itself, what comes into focus is a residual sense of movement—an atmospheric trace that arises precisely through its absence.
Subtle currents of air, the shifting position of the viewer, and the act of looking itself introduce minute variations, generating a new temporality within the space.
Grounded in the tradition of Nihonga yet extending beyond its conventional materials and supports, Yoshida’s practice reconsiders the act of seeing.
Her works do not simply present images; rather, they transform the surrounding environment into a site of perception.
In this exhibition, the viewer is not invited to witness a representation of nature.
Instead, one encounters the persistence of fluctuation—an instability that continues to drift within a controlled space.
What remains, even here, is something that refuses to settle.
"Sea of Brass," a thin film-like work consisting of 2,800 sheets of brass foil, has traveled to various places, including the mountains of Kyoto, the sea of Kanagawa, under a large fallen cherry tree, and on the roof of an apartment building in Asakusa, Tokyo, and has drifted in the light and wind of those places.
When blown by the wind and filled with air, it feels like the back of a giant creature or the surface of the water as it moves.
The impetus for this work came from a child-like dream of creating a contrasting golden sea in a forest where the sun shines through the trees.
In fact, when installed outdoors, the ever-changing sunlight, shadows of trees falling on the golden surface, green leaves, and bright red camellias changed their expressions with time, as if Rimpa's work had become a real object.
And the kite created with butterfly wings, which will be exhibited this time.
The pieces of feathers used in this work, which were collected 4 to 50 years ago, are still beautiful and have not faded at all in 2026. In order to make these feathers fly in the sky once again, I re-created them in the form of a kite.
The "joy, excitement, and fear of life and death" that I realized in nature became my energy and driving force for creation, and I have been working with various techniques of expression based on Japanese painting techniques.
Please experience what kind of shimmering sensations you can feel from these works that were floating in nature in i GALLERY OSAKA, surrounded by concrete walls."
-Ai Yoshida
