Yasuko Toyoshima Web Site

One possible view on Yasuko Toyoshima's conceptual art
Text by Biljana Mickov

Yasuko as one of the worlds' leading Japanese Contemporary Artist works mostly to express her artistic sprit through conceptual art. Her Conceptual art is art in which the concepts or ideas involved in the work take prestige over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. She is using a contemporary expression.

Her conceptual art is art manifesting only as documentary evidence for an "art idea". But in others, her Conceptual art may involve the construction of images and objects in a manner that frees the artist from their traditional role as a maker of aesthetic decisions.

We can say that conceptual art is a synonym for all contemporary art which did not practice the traditional skills of painting and sculpture.

The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.・・Sol LeWitt

Yasuko is referred to focused practice of idea-based art. In traditional terms, a commonplace object like Duchamp's well known work cannot be said to be art but it is art. Duchamp's work is very important for future "conceptualists" like artist Josef Kosuth wrote: "All art (after Duchamp) is conceptual (in nature) because art only exists conceptually."

The main characteristic in Yasuko's art is that she is dealing with ideas to raisin up the traditional Japanese manner on the Contemporary ・Conceptual art which is recognized on the global level and making a discourse between them.

She has tried to make a good connection between these two affairs and she prospers into it. Both her ideas and themes of works are coming up from present modern lives. It's very obvious in the work of Mini investments・where she is taking the place as an object who is following art idea. In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work.
The main aim of Yasuko's project when she has bought stocks from different companies her idea was not to make a profit but to keep the stock just like as a part of her. The artists can be responsible for themselves and their own systems and already unconsciously define her value.

She tries to understand herself and surroundings and she becomes the investor who lives in a Capitalist society. Artists can be responsible for their own system even when the value of Stocks・is going down or going up. Her conclusion is: There does not exist anything unsystematic because the unsystematic itself is a part of the system as well.

With her activism she is participating in her own art. In Mini investment・she is focused on the individual in the social system and shows her point of view to systems around us.Many critics and artists can say of conceptual aspects of the artist or art work, reflecting to the influence that many of the original conceptual artists have had on the art world.
The influence of Yasuko's conceptual art is strong in many ways. She makes with her dynamic and active works a strong Impression.

Text by Biljana Mickov