Tokujin Yoshioka’s new work “Spider’s Thread” takes inspiration from a classic Japanese story and is the focal point of his solo exhibition.
Japanese designer Yoshioka is renowned for his “barely there” designs. His latest work “Spider’s Thread” is a spot-on reflection of this notion.
The installation is made using seven threads that are stretched and tightened around the frame of a chair, resembling a spider’s web. The thread becomes the base from which crystals are grown, eventually filling out the structure and creating a “complete” chair.
By simplifying the volume of the chair’s form as much as possible and following the natural form of growing crystals, a sculpture of a chair appears formed by the power of nature, says Yoshioka.
The inspiration for the installation came from the classical Japanese story, The Spider’s Thread, written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The story is about a Buddha who decides to give one last chance of redemption to a criminal in hell who did a good deed of saving a spider when he was alive. The Buddha takes a thread of a spider in heaven and lowers it down to hell so that the criminal can climb from hell to paradise. The thread of the spider is a symbol of hope and fragility, which aims to portray and reference nature in Yoshioka’s installation.
“Spider’s Thread” is presented as part of Yoshioka’s solo exhibition TOKUJIN YOSHIOKA_Crystalise at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo until 14 January 2014.
