Jason Yi

2003 Kamiyama Artist in Residence Participant
In Kamiyama from September 23 to November 18, 2003

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Jason S. Yi immigrated to the United States as a child in 1975. Through a work that crosses artistic disciplines; multi-media / interactive installations, drawing, photography, sculpture, adn video, he seeks small clues within life (identity, culture, family) and constructs visual documentation laced with subtle clues for audiences to contemplate.
His exploration of the Kamiyama landscape and interactions with the local residents resulted in a presentation of three screen video installations and a series of digital photographs. A video of digitally manipulated, Amagoi no Taki (a local waterfall) provided a visual setting for the Japanese tale "Momotaro" told by the residents of Kamiyama. The photographic work showed images of local residents posing and recreating scenes of the old landscape paintings of past Tokushima Prefecture artists. Both video and photographic works explored the perception of time and its inseperable connection to man and nature.（→ Jason Yi website)

There are people talking in the mystical forest.
About what? About time; my time and the forest's time.
And about the connection between them.
Their voices, traversing time, echo from the photos.
A video installation made up of three enormous screens, stands in the town gymnasium.
A boy recounts a folktale of "Momotaro"
An old lady pricks up her ears.
Yet, what is listening to their conversation from outer space, where the time of the boy and the time of the old lady are connected across time and space?
It is the roaring waterfall, listening with all his ears.
(Musashi Art University Professor Ryu Niimi)