International Artist-In-Residence
New Works 00.4

Yutaka Sone

Tokyo, Japan

December 07, 2000–January 14, 2001

about the artist

Yutaka Sone was born in 1965 in Shizuoka, Japan and currently lives in Tokyo and Los Angeles. He holds a B.F.A. and an M.A. in architecture from Tokyo Geijutsu University. Sone has exhibited his work throughout Asia, including solo exhibitions at the Art Tower Mito, Mito, Japan (1993); Roesntgen Kunst Institute, Tokyo, Japan (1995); Mitaka City Arts Foundation, Japan (1996); Hiroshima Contemporary Art Museum, Japan (1997); Shiseido Art House, Kakegawa, Japan (1998); AARA, Bangkok, Thailand (1998); and Sogestu Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (1999). He participated in 1997’s Sculpture Project Munster, the travelling exhibition Cities on the Move (originating at Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria in 1997); Unfinished History at the Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis (1998); and EXPO 2000, Hanover, Germany (2000). The Public Art Fund in New York has commissioned a major project that will open in 2001. His ArtPace project is his first institutional solo exhibition in the U.S.

Yutaka Sone takes elements of American culture and pushes them to the extreme with humor and immediacy. Through video, installation and drawings, he transforms everyday events into spectacle.

Yutaka Sone was chosen for his ArtPace residency by the March 1998 panel consisting of Dan Cameron, Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Amada Cruz, Kellie Jones, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, and Nancy Rubins.

about the project

Yutaka Sone brings together entertainment and art, fiction and fantasy in his ArtPace project. His video, Double Six is a tightly orchestrated production, shot in the Texas Hill Country. Sone presents an unlikely vision of a cowboy on a horse chasing a helicopter that carries a pair of enormous dice. As the helicopter flies across the rural landscape, the dice are released and tumble onto the dusty ground. The cowboy rides off into the landscape.

Taking a cue from Hollywood Westerns and action movies, Sone’s landscape is larger-than-life. Double Six’s accompanying soundtrack, composed by Yoshio Yamabe, enhances the video’s ironic character, with its retro, easy-listening-meets-Bossanova style.

In the exhibition, the video is accompanied by drawings that document the filmmaking process, including a large work on cowhide. The drawings highlight aspects of the Western landscape and the collaborative nature of filmmaking, giving credit to the cast and crew.

Sone is a nomadic artist, and Double Six is certainly informed by the artist’s extensive travels, as well as the dominance of American imagery in media. Western movies, Las Vegas, and surveillance helicopters all merge into one indelible image. Sone observes the ongoing myth and promise of the American frontier and processes it into a humorous, engaging narrative. Sone’s flying dice cleverly exaggerates the idea of chance: in the Western landscape, you win some and you lose some.

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