Yayoi Yokoyama: Crystal Flower

Artist(s):

• Yayoi Yokoyama

Title:

Crystal Flower

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH 2001: n-space

Creation Year:

2000

Medium:

Three panels

Size:

900mm x 700mm

Category:

• 2D & Wall-Hung

Keywords:

• computer graphics
• nature
• symmetry

Artist Statement:

Digital expression using the computer can create images that are not always intended. I have been creating artwork based on such incidents for some time.

I am like a flower and a plant from another era. I am interested not only in the lovely figures of flowers but also in the details – the colors, the petals, and the shapes. I create artwork of imaged flowers and plants using 3D computer graphics. I have made more than 100 electronic flowers and plants, but the impressions of these images resist the materiality present in the artwork. I felt it limited my artistic expression. Therefore, I thought it is necessary to make combine them create to create an altogether different image.

I trimmed a part of the image of the first flower, and tried to create various effects. At this point, the real art-making begins. I tried to increase and decrease the amplitude of the trim angle, changing each by changing the parameters. The expression of the flower changed greatly, and began to look like a kaleidoscope. These changes were easy to make and after witnessing several successive changes it reminded me of watching a creature tirelessly morphing its own form.

The flowers, created with 3D computer graphics, were adjusted delicately so as not to alter the particular atmosphere and characteristics which allowed them to bloom realistically for each different image. When the crystals of the flower were collected and laid out, a “flower illustrated book” was completed.

The title, “Crystal Flower,” arose because the electronic flower bloomed like the real thing, and realistically bloomed again, taking on the image of a crystal. Though the image is extracted from about 100 flowers, each flower crystal piece continues to grow.