Pacific Project
Born in Fukuoka in 1959. Yanagi received an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 1990.
In 1993, Yanagi participated in the 45th Venice Biennial and became the rst Japanese artist to be selected from the Aperto exhibition as an emerging artist. Yanagi’s works were in numerous international exhibitions including Bienal de São Paulo (Brazil) in 1996, la Biennale de Lyon (France) in 1996, and Whitney Biennial (U.S.A) in 2000.
Yanagi also showed his works in Japan in many solo exhibitions, among them Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Fukuoka Art Museum and BankArt (Yokohama.) In 2008, he completed his long-term project, “Inujima Seirensho Art Museum” in Okayama, which exhibits a permanent site-specifi c installation of the artist.
Yanagi’s artworks are in numerous museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art Tate Modern., Virginia Museum of Fine Art and the Fabric Workshop and Museum. Since 2012, he has been a director at ART BASE MOMOSHIMA.
"Pacific Project" 1997〜2000
This group of work was inspired by series of expeditions where the artist dived into Pacific Ocean to photograph the ruins of WWII. Through this project, Yanagi examines the meaning behind the remnants of iron, trapped at the bottom of the boundless sea.