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Mirrors, cultural histories and totem poles. These are a few words that two printmaking students chose to summarize the work of professor Koichi Yamamoto. This winter, Yamamoto, associate professor of printmaking, was chosen to be one of 26 internationally acclaimed artists on display in the traveling exhibition by the Leonardo Sciascia Foundation. The exhibition will spend a little more than a year appearing in five different cities throughout Italy. “This exhibition is unique because Mr. Sciascia preferred graphic art to be clean, high contrast, black and white images, so no colors are allowed,” Yamamoto said. “It’s very specific.” The competition expects traditional techniques to be used with no digital work allowed. Fortunately, Yamamoto’s works already fit the exhibition’s standards. “A lot of engravers generally work in black in white and therefore fit into this category,” Yamamoto said. “One particular type of technique that I do is called copper engravings, which is a very old-fashioned, 500-year-old technology.” Geoff Silvis, a first-year graduate student in printmaking, elaborated on Koichi’s style. “It’s incredibly intricate,” Silvis said. “It’s a lot of manual labor and probably a lot of copper splinters.” Dan Hood, a senior in printmaking, sees the intricacies as lighthearted, though. “His work is just very playful to me … lots of reflections,” Hood said. Whatever the emotion Yamamoto strives for, he uses modern images to connect to his audience. “I’ve been making lot of masks, human facial expressions,” Yamamoto said. “A lot to do with robotics. We are encountering this society where we are using a lot of machines, and slowly these machines start to have a human quality.” Yamamoto draws this inspiration from a cultural situation in his homeland: Japan. He said the population is aging rapidly, so to care for the elderly, the bulk of the work force may soon be robots.
(above) Koichi Yamamoto, associate professor of printmaking, works with a print in the studio. (below) Yamamoto looks at a work in progress. Photos by Tiara Holt • The Daily Beacon
See YAMAMAOTO on Page 8
Volume 128 Issue 30
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Friday, February 20, 2015