Artist : Youki Hirakawa
Title : Coaled Sky
Medium : single channel 4K video
Duration : 7 min 45 sec, silent


ENQUIRE ABOUT THIS WORK

Whilst living in Germany, Youki Hirakawa visited an artificial lake and former coal mine, where he collected lumps of coal and petrified wood. When he unearthed the bituminous coal from the ground, it was still wet and the surface was shining like a thousand stars. From that experience, Hirakawa produced ‘Coaled Sky’.

Hirakawa is a Japanese contemporary artist born in Nagoya, Japan in 1983. He currently lives and works in Toyota, Japan, following a long residency in Berlin, Germany. He was invited to show at the ‘48th International Film Festival Rotterdam’ and ‘65th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen’ in 2019 and has held solo exhibitions internationally, including Ando Gallery, Tokyo, Double Square Gallery, Taipei, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Kunstkraftwerk, Leipzig, Minokamo City Museum, Japan. Hirakawa has also been invited to exhibit in international art festivals including Digital Art Festival Taipei 2017, International Contemporary Art Festival Kaunas, Sapporo International Art Festival and Aichi Triennale. His inaugural solo exhibition ‘Secret Fire’ at Anima Mundi was held in 2016 and his follow up ‘A River Under Water’ in 2018. In 2017 he was a finalist of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize. He was recently included in ‘Spirit & Endeavour’ to celebrate 800 years of Salisbury Cathedral. alongside Craigie Aitchison, Sir Tony Cragg, Martin Creed, Dame Barbara Hepworth, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Sir Antony Gormley, Bill Woodrow, Bruce Munro, Grayson Perry, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, Mark Wallinger, Henry Moore, Conrad Shawcross and Lynn Chadwick. Works are held in numerous public and private collections.