Yoko Ozawa / よはくYohaku (blank space)

Artist residency: 3 March - 3 June 2023

Inspired by a lifelong interest in natural phenomena - seasonal transitions, fog, breeze, rain, light and shadow, Yoko Ozawa’s three-month residency project examined nature and the body, the interconnectedness of objects/things and the everyday human experience of spirituality and place through the Japanese notion of よはくyohaku (blank space).

Despite how one might interpret its meaning from its literal translation into English, yohaku is not a blank space of nothingness. On the contrary, it’s a space of great potential, where questions can be asked, and deeper understandings and connections can be found as the artist searches for the inexpressible in art and life.

As the celebrated Japanese designer Kenya Hara writes: 

Creativity and “questioning” are made of the same stuff. A creative question is a form of expression – it requires no definite answer. That is because it holds countless answers within itself 

Yoko brings this spirit of questioning to her residency project through her examination of yohaku.

Her opening exhibit in March was an installation that reflected upon fallen leaves, the emotional (re)awakening of the senses as we shifted into the autumnal season. It was conceived as a re-contextualisation of an earlier installation, 木枯し Kogarashi – The first cold wind blew, presented at Craft in 2021.

The inaugural installation and its central preoccupation with yohaku was the inspiration for an original piece of music performed by musician/composer Genevieve Fry and multi-instrumentalist Esala Liyanage as part of Brunswick Music Festival, which played in the exhibition space on repeat. 

Yoko then staged eight ceramic installations in the space that have explored the relationships between water reflection, plants, vessels, materiality, sound and the body through her interpretation of the concept and feeling of yohaku.

During her residency, she also worked on her haiku (poetry) practice. Fragments sometimes set her intentions for the next installation or emerged afterwards and found their way into the work in other ways, paying homage to this venerable tradition that has long fascinated the artist. 

Her haiku writing led her back to her early artistic training in drawing and painting - the foundations of her thinking about yohaku - and to the creation of four delicate ink drawing studies presented as part of her final exhibit.

An evocation of the Aki 秋/Waring (Autumn) season here in Naarm (Melbourne), the Practice of よはく yohaku drawing series owes much to her early training and deep appreciation of Japanese aesthetics and painting. *

And yet, like her innovative ceramics practice, Yoko experiments with these works, taking abstraction a step further:

‘I’m free to create anything. It is not necessary to follow (precisely) such an admirable tradition. Yet, I have been searching for where my work fits into culture,’ she says.

It’s a conversation that we examined with Yoko throughout the life of the project as we progressively compiled an online viewing room incorporating conversations with musician/composer Genevieve and guest writer, poet and essayist Declan Fry to explore various links and connections between modes of practice and thinking. 

Yoko’s final installation presented, 吹き溜まり Fukidamari — a bank of falling leaves, is a re-contextualisation of her large sculptural work currently on display as part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s Melbourne Now exhibition. 

Situated in the centre of the room, Yoko invited the viewer to walk around the work - to notice the blank space surrounding its form. Elsewhere in the room, there were other connections to be found, resonances in colour, shape, form and motif.

Presented alongside the work was a video. It documents Yoko’s making of the work for NGV Melbourne Now, but it also aims to reach beyond this, to katachi nisuru, to represent or materialise the soul of the artist at work and the object of her craft. 

While the installation could be enjoyed on its own merit, to gain a deeper appreciation, we recommended you also visit the NGV to see Yoko’s sculpture of the same name. You can also learn more by looking watching the video and reading the corresponding wall texts, which can also be explored online below.

Yoko’s drawings and ceramic objects are offered for sale. Ceramic objects may be acquired individually as sculptural objects or as a collection of works - in the spirit of Yoko’s installation practice and examination of yohaku.

To explore Yoko’s catalogue of works offered, please visit her artist page on our website > here. To receive a complete catalogue, please email info@correspondences.work.

—Emma Thomson, correspondences

Our heartfelt thanks to Arts Merri-Bek for supporting our residency program. Thanks must also go to Annika Kafcaloudis for her stunning installation photographs presented here and Saskia Yeung for her video editorial assistance.

* Waring is a Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung/Kulin word.

Walk through the exhibition

Artist Bio