A series of "Memorial Volume"



being and material
A long time ago, since I visited a white granite quarry, I couldn't make any own shape on a stone. I felt huge bedrock and quarry's landscape. I felt the stone is a great existance over me.
I aspired to be sculptor, but I couldn't do action any more. I have to consider many things about what is nature, human's culture and civilization, stone's xistance, art, me and so on. Finally, I desided to brake a stone to material for me which is just paving stone before I start to think about my personal work.
On the way through this action, I could feel a lot fo things from a stone.
This is the beginning story of "Memorial Volume".


"CRUST - deep memories & wall" 1991/ granite stone, natural stone, soil and woods
/ installation work on the wall and floor in the gallery.
"CRUST memories" 1991 size: 5 * 2.5 * 1.5 m(h)

M.Volume Ark

M.Volume Ark2
Every works of "memorial volume" have kept Undeveloped films inside.
Through out my life I have photographed inspirational scenes
and put them in my work undeveloped.
If sometime in the future anyone tries to force their way into the stone
the light will destroy the film. The memories will be gone.

M.Volume Coffer2
"Memorial Volume/ coffer-2" 1989 size:93cm(h)
(owned by Mr.Emon)


M.Volume Ark2
There is a red ladder inside of "Memorial Volume/ Ark"

M.Volume Ark
"Memorial Volume/ Ark" (owned by Taito-ku Tokyo)
"Memorial Volume/ coffer" 1989


M.V.Green1
Installation at the Ochanomizu Square, 1991

"Memorial Volume/ Green" 1990 size:1m(h)
(owned by Mita international conference hall of the Finance Ministry)

M.V.Green1



M.V.Green



Yerrow Kind
"Yellow's Kind" 1994 size:1m(h)




720 Pavement's stones
I split one stone into 720 cobble stones.
Then I reassembled the stones into the original stone.
This became the foundation of the Memorial Volume series. 1987




Memorial Volume - bule
"Memorial Volume/ Green" 1990 size:1m(h)
(owned by Ise contemporary museum of art)




M.V.
for window display at Komatsu-store in Ginza (owned by Contemporary Museum of Art Hiroshima, Aichi prefectural Museum of Art)


"Gelbe Sorte- ne Volume" Germany, 1992 size:14m(L)

international exhibition in Kassel "Encountering Others"
in fornt of Hannmunden city Museum, Germany

Gelbe Sorte in Germany

Gelbe Sorte in Germany

Gelbe Sorte2 in Germany
Four years after, I got one call from the city that was a request to remove my sculpture. Because the place where I had installed belongs to the prefecture, city had borrowed for a period of the exhibition.
I accepted their request under the condition that I put important memories which has been kept inside sculpture into the same ground.
I visited again and did. I put memories in the ground and covered with one stone which had been used in the sculpture, and I inscribed words on a stone by Japanese letter "The close of Art".
Gelbe Sorte in Germany

It's possible to see the place where I have installed a stone in the ground by GoogleMap.

GoogleMap
"Memorial Volume - water" 2004 size:1.6m(h) white granite, water
(Water Museum-104)

Memorial Volume-water

Memorial Volume-water
inside of the "Memorial Volume - water"
has kept full water.




Faraway Mountain -3
"Faraway Mountain" 2006, white granite 12 pieces.
It is possible to put each piece together one block of big sculpture.





"Faraway Memory" 2006, five kind of granite. wall work





"Faraway River" 2006, white gtranite. wall work






faraway mountain in the Chelse Collage of Art
"Faraway Mountain" of Atsuo Okamoto exhibition "FOREST" 2011
white granite 12 pieces.


"Distant Memory" 2006 , size : 65(h) * 270 * 115 cm
Saint Paul city USA

Black natural stone's shape has been gouged out in a lime stone,
and filled up this hole with old pave stones which were used in the city.

work in Minnesota

work in Boyd park
"Taciturn Volume" 1991 , size : 150(h) * 700 * 400 cm
Ube city

This sculpture had installed in a location of the middle of lawn in Open Air Museum Tokiwa-park Ube since 1991.
It was moved to a location of urban area from Tokiwa-park in the middle of August 2007, to follow the basic concept of this sculpture.
I'm very happy that Ube-city accdepted to move my sculpture to urban area.

Taciturn Volume

Taciturn Volume

Taciturn Volume

"faraway mountain - 3" 2016 / white granite / size : 290 cm * 470 cm * 190 cm(h)
faraway mountain - 3
faraway mountain - 3


Copyright © Atsuo Okamoto