Yuka Oyama, Encapsulation Suits. 2016. Photograph by Attila Hartwig.
In her work Yuka Oyama explores the relationships people have with objects; for example, how jewellery often provides an intimate link between a human, a physical body, and experiences. Oyama’s sculptural imaginings have been described as “full of strangely mechanical inter-human relations and futuristic human-object rituals”.
During her residency in Te Whanganui a Tara/Wellington, Oyama is working on a new research project Helpers – Changing Homes. She has interviewed a group of volunteer participants to unearth the emotional and psychological connections they make through the ‘things’ they carry with them as they travel from place to place. Oyama believes that objects come to ‘life’ when we think about them not simply as functional objects but as ‘things’ we invest with narratives that keep us connected to people and the place we call home. In Helpers – Changing Homes she sets out to investigate our relations to material culture and the ways we might define ‘home’ when home is constantly changing.
Sian Van Dyk and Yuka Oyama at The Stubborn Life of Objects lecture, Massey University. 2017. Photograph by Claire Harris.
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