Yoshimi Hayashi's "Helms Alee" at the University of New Mexico Art Museum

Yoshimi Hayashi video installation, "Helms Alee," is one of the works currently on display at the New Mexico Art Museum's LAND/ART exhibition called Dispersal/Return: Land Arts of the American West 2000 - 2006 (see below).


Yoshimi's artist statement describes the work in this way:

Helms Alee is a video installation and a continuing time based work. The work was shot in urban settings of Omote Sando, Tokyo, as well as, in the rural deserts of Anza Borrego, California. This project documents the flow of wind in urban and rural settings. The wind current becomes a metaphor for my psyche. The more I clutter my mind, the more it is difficult for my spirit to travel in a natural harmonious manner, thus creating dissonance. In rural, open, landscapes the consistent winds allow me to travel in a direct course with clarity of mind. In large cities, buildings impede the wind flow creating crosscurrents; cars and buses zoom by and blow harsh puffs of toxic smoke; and the landscape of foot traffic constantly and busily changes.

Navigating such an urban environment by means of my hand held sail is fraught with confusion: tacking back and forth endlessly, wild accidental gibes only to be thrown into irons, being pushed backwards by the current and even ending up going in a totally opposite direction as I intended to go. Sadly, where the wind lulled and my sails luffed I found myself in a sea of vagrants, undoubtedly harboring themselves from their own turbulent psyches, Being able to physically see the consequence of these invisible forces on my sail enlightens my own sensitivity towards the spiritual pressures imposed by living in a densely populated setting.

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Dispersal/Return: Land Arts of the American West 2000 - 2006
August 28 – November 25, 2009

The University of New Mexico Art Museum presents twenty artists from Land Arts of the American West, an interdisciplinary field program in the Department of Art and Art History at UNM. Curated by Bill Gilbert, the Lannan Chair and Director of the Land Arts program and Michele M. Penhall, Curator, Prints and Photographs at the UNM Art Museum, the exhibition brings together former participants from this innovative studio program who continue to work on land art based projects. The exhibition includes video and installation works by Claire Long and Anna Keleher, Blake Gibson, Yoshimi Hayashi, Mark Hensel, Jennifer DePaolo Van Horn, and Bill Gilbert; works on paper and sculpture by Jeff Beekman, Erika Osborne, Blake Gibson, Geordie Shepherd, Elizabeth Hunt, Jeanette Hart-Mann, Brooke Steiger, Gabe Romero, and Peter Voshefski. There will also be four site specific works commissioned for the exhibition by Julie Anand, Jeanette Hart-Mann/Nina Dubois, Jess Dunn, and Ryan Henel. A performance by Gabe Romero and Johnathan Loth is scheduled for the opening night reception. Featured guest speakers will be announced at a later date. The University of New Mexico Art Museum is free and open to the public. More details on Dispersal/Return site projects.

For more information about the University of New Mexico Art Museum visit www.unmartmuseum.unm.edu For more information about Land Arts of the American West program at the University of New Mexico visit www.unm.edu/~artdept2/land_arts/index.html