Year: 2022
Medium: oil on linen
Dimensions: 182 x 228 cm (71 5/8 x 89 3/4 in.)
Acquired from Kenji Taki Gallery, 2023
A neon sign glows red in the darkness, spelling the word “Love”. The pictorial technique is superb, from the luster of the metal frame and cables to the grain of the wooden flooring and the dazzle of the lit-up neon tubing. However, this is not simply a realistic depiction of neon lights in a painting. In her ongoing neon series, Yokoyama seeks to reposition what is expressed through words (letters) as things expressed through painting. There is a great variety of what can be expressed through words (letters). Firstly, the meaning of the English word “love” can be translated in multiple ways in the artist’s native tongue, Japanese: rabu or ai. And it can acquire various nuances depending on the tone of voice with which it is spoken, for example, or the style of handwriting in which it is written. Moreover, these differences are highly personal and very much linked to individual experiences. As the title “Shape of Your Words” indicates, “Words” in this series come with a possessive case: “Your.” This work looks into the word “love” as written by a person who identifies as “E.M.” The handwriting produced by E.M. is faithfully replicated in neon tubing by a technician. Yokoyama then placed this tubing in front of her and painted it. When E.M. was asked by the artist to write “love,” they must have had some inner idea of what “love” is. This subjective conception of “love” became a written word, which was then replicated with neon tubes, and was subsequently reproduced in painting by Yokoyama. Through the development of this highly mimetic image, Yokoyama did not simply attempt to imitate E.M.’s personal handwriting—she was seeking to abstract E.M.’s inner notion of “love” in painting, via handwriting as a medium. The “love” that underwent several stages of reproduction before ending up in front of us may be understood as a kind of faceless portrait.
