Jacob Hashimoto

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Art

Interview: Jacob Hashimoto Relates How Narrative and Landscape Abstraction Inform How He Thinks About Space

“The Eclipse” (2017-2018), acrylic, bamboo, screen prints, paper, wood, and cotton. St. Cornelius Chapel, Governors Island, New York. Photo by Erin O’Hara. All images © Jacob Hashimoto, shared with permission

In the suspended worlds of upstate New York-based artist Jacob Hashimoto (previously), a multitude of undulating forms and layers begin with a kite, a single element he discusses in a new interview supported by Colossal Members.

Each screen-printed disc is inspired by his surroundings, pop culture, and current events, and the individual components are assembled into fields in a vast range of vivid colors, patterns, and sizes, from wall works to elaborate architectural installations. Hashimoto describes the kite elements as “pixels,” nodding to his interest in virtual realms and world-building. Game design and 3D-modeling software have inspired an evolving interest in layers, multiplication, and movement around physical space.

Film and gaming in these built virtual environments are becoming really important. They also have this ability to tell us a lot about our culture…As somebody who comes out of this language of post-war American painting and abstraction, and the intersection of those two vocabularies, ignoring digital landscape work is folly, because I think it’s where a lot of really important action is.

In this conversation, Colossal editor Kate Mothes speaks with Hashimoto about the significance of personal narrative, the evolution of technology and its influence on the ways that we perceive our surroundings, and the importance of teaching yourself new skills.

Detail of “The Fascinogenic Eye” (2022). Photo by Derek Zeitel

Art

Thousands of Discs Are Suspended in Immense Cloud-Like Formations in Jacob Hashimoto’s Installations

“The Sky” at Portland International Airport (2020), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, screenprints, and fiberglass rod, 40 x 30 x 18 feet. Photo by Mario Gallucci

Artist Jacob Hashimoto (previously) hangs thousands of individual orbs in undulating, cloud-like masses that transform atriums and open spaces into monumental landscapes. His site-specific installations layer organic elements—some of the components are printed with waves, galactic dust particles, and other motifs suggestive of nature—in formations “that climb, wavelike, above the viewer, dwarfing them in almost a cathedral of humble little objects,” he says.

The artist began creating such large-scale works in the 90s, and although they’ve evolved from simple “sculptures of the sky,” Hashimoto continues to draw on the connection between landscape and abstraction, a recurring theme that’s been increasingly informed by technology, virtual environments, and data mapping. An eclectic array of references like Japanese screens, Super Mario Bros, and the Digital Universe inform how the artist conceptualizes his compositions, in addition to the ways spatial coordinates are utilized in 3D environments. “Simply, if you build a cloud out of paper and wood and configure it in a strict x, y, z grid structure, the resulting sculpture or object or experience tells us something about how we see the world and allows us to meditate a moment on the digital/analog dialectic that is so much a part of every aspect of our lives,” he says.

Hashimoto is currently based in Ossining, New York, and has a few upcoming solo shows, including one opening on June 4 at Makasiini Contemporary in Turku, Finland, and two others slated for fall at Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago and London’s Ronchini Gallery. See more of his artworks on his site and Instagram, and read his recent interview with designboom for a deeper look at his practice.

Detail of “The Sky” at Portland International Airport (2020), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, screenprints, and fiberglass rod, 40 x 30 x 18 feet. Photo by Mario Gallucci

“The City” at Portland International Airport (2020), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, screenprints, and fiberglass rod, 40 x 30 x 18 feet. Photo by Mario Gallucci

Detail of “The City” at Portland International Airport (2020), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, screenprints, and fiberglass rod, 40 x 30 x 18 feet. Photo by Mario Gallucci

Detail of “The City” at Portland International Airport (2020), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, screenprints, and fiberglass rod, 40 x 30 x 18 feet. Photo by Mario Gallucci

“This Infinite Gateway of Time and Circumstance” at San Francisco International Airport (2019), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, stainless steel, acrylic, and Spectra, 9 x 39 x 9 feet. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Arts Commission

Detail of “This Infinite Gateway of Time and Circumstance” at San Francisco International Airport (2019), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, stainless steel, acrylic, and Spectra, 9 x 39 x 9 feet. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Arts Commission

“In the Heart of this Infinite Particle of Galactic Dust” in Willis Tower, Chicago, (2019), bamboo, resin, screen prints, acrylic, stainless steel and Spectra, 16 feet 5.75 inches x 42 feet x 18 feet 6 inches. Photo courtesy of EQ Office, by Ed Knigge

Detail of “In the Heart of this Infinite Particle of Galactic Dust” in Willis Tower, Chicago, (2019), bamboo, resin, screen prints, acrylic, stainless steel and Spectra, 16 feet 5.75 inches x 42 feet x 18 feet 6 inches. Photo courtesy of EQ Office, by Ed Knigge

Art

Over Fifteen Thousand Paper Kites Create a Two-Toned Cloud Inside New York’s St. Cornelius Chapel

All images by Timothy Schenck

A mass of circular black paper and bamboo kites merges with a collection of identically designed white ones inside Governors Island’s St. Cornelius Chapel in an installation titled The Eclipse. Created by artist Jacob Hashimoto (previously), the paper orbs hang from the ceiling by pieces of string to comprise a layered formation that appears like roving waves or clouds. This is the second iteration of the labor-intensive installation, which premiered at the Palazzo Flangini during the 57^th Venice Biennale.

An additional large-scale work by Hashimoto titled Never Comes Tomorrow, which consists of hundred of wood cubes and colorful steel funnels, is installed outside of the chapel in Liggett Hall Archway. The dual installations can be visited on Governors Island seven days a week through October 31, 2018. You can find specific hours for the installation on the Governors Island website, and see more of Hashimoto’s works on his website.

Art

Gas Giant: An Enormous Suspended Kite Installation by Jacob Hashimoto

Installed by artist Jacob Hashimoto (previously) last fall at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Gas Giant is a site-specific installation created from myriad paper kite structures. Known for his complex and seemingly weightless installations, Hashimoto’s artworks frequently involve numerous suspended components imprinted with or otherwise suggesting elements of nature, such as clouds, wind and water. This particular piece was just one of several artworks on view as part of his show “super-elastic collisions (origins, and distant derivations).” You can explore more photos here (use the scrolling gallery on top). All imagery courtesy the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery.