Yumiko Ono

1987 Born in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan Lives in Paris, France 2010 - 2012 MFA, Oil Painting Course, Musashino Art University, Tokyo 2006 - 2010 BFA, Oil Painting Course, Musashino Art University, Tokyo Ono’s primary mediums in her work are porcelain and drawing. She uses those fragile and sensitive materials, which are contrary to the characteristics of architecture, for her architectural work in order to express the fragility and the fictionality of utopia itself. For this piece, Ono took a new approach to fit her work into the wild environment in Minnesota by using press mold technique with clay and wooden molds instead of her typical slip casting technique with slip (liquid porcelain) and plaster molds. As for the title, Fountain refers to the work from Marcel Duchamp with the same title. Ono also incorporates the idea of Shakkei (borrowed scenery), which is the principle of incorporating background landscape into the composition of East Asian garden design, reflecting both Eastern and Western culture. As the sands and rocks in Japanese gardens express rivers and seas, Ono anticipates the audience to perceive water from the piece.