A special kind of ordinary – Yui Yaegashi’s painting

The following text is an excerpt from Mari Tsukamoto’s essay on the work of Yui Yaegashi.

I clearly remember when Yui Yaegashi’s painting arrived at my house. When I unpacked the parcel, I could smell the faint scent of oil paint. To write this text, I had asked to see the actual work, which was then sent to me. The reason I chose this painting, Untitled (2024) is because of my personal affinity for the color purple. The horizontal plane of the painting is composed of rectangles of different colors. Underneath the grayish cream rectangle that occupies the majority of the composition lies a layer of purple and two layers of different light blue colors. The purple is oilier than the others, and it flickers when viewed at an angle. It must have been about a week; a very short time, but I lived with this painting. It was on a bookshelf, on the table of the dining room, on a cupboard in my bedroom. Wherever it was placed in my cramped home, the painting had a sense of presence that belied its small size. It governed the place and set up the space.

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Now let us focus on the “slowness” in Yaegashi’s production. Despite its small size, her works can take several months, and sometimes several years, to complete. However, she does not always work on the same painting continuously during the production period. The reason it takes so long is that each layer requires at least one month for drying. To allow time for the paint to dry, Yaegashi works on several paintings at the same time, finishing them alternately. We should add that this approach is in line with the nature of oil paint as a medium. Oil paint is a mixture of pigments and a vehicle (dry oil), and while the transparency of the paint can be freely manipulated by layering, it takes time to dry because it is solidified by the oil’s oxidative polymerization, which forms a film. In short, oil paint is a “slow” medium. But the slowness inherent in the material seems to have a positive effect on Yaegashi’s overall production. The waiting time is also a time for contemplation. By keeping a distance from the work in progress, she avoids a myopic perspective and has time for experimentation. This alternation of practice and dryness/contemplation is what gives Yaegashi’s paintings their unique density.

Mari Tsukamoto (1989) is curator at The Museum of Art, Kochi.