Japanese artist Yasuaki Onishi’s ‘Reverse of Volume RG’ is a stunning installation that capture’s the ‘ghost’ of what is no longer there. A visual impression of what is missing.
Onishi stacked cardboard boxes in larges piles of varying heights to create the object of his impression, then plastic sheeting was draped over a scaffolding set up around the assembled boxes. With the help of an assistant, the artist dripped strands of hot black glue down from the ceiling to the sheet, letting them dry like threads in the air.
After the thousands of glue strands were dry, Onishi removed the boxes below, revealing a negative space cast of what had been there before. From beneath the tarp, the glue strands are seen as confetti of black specks across a floating, cave-like ceiling. From afar, ‘Reverse’ is a mesmerizing preservation, a kind of receipt for the work that went into the work itself.
