From a distance, Yutaka Sone's sculptures look like flat slates of ice that you could easily imagine floating on chilly Antarctic waters, but take a closer look, and you'll discover a detailed landscapes rising from white marble. Their real life counter-parts will also be found floating on the ocean, for these are islands.
The artist's
Sculpture exhibition at the David Zwirner remains open until the 25th January, and features three intricately carved island cities. Sone's twenty-year period of work culminates into a portrait commemorating ever-changing landscapes.
Hong Kong (1998) details skyscrapers, housing complexes, stadiums, and a harbor surrounding central hills, while avenues and cross streets travel through Central Park in
Little Manhattan (2007-2009). Sone's most recent sculpture,
Venezia (2013) feature transport routes such as canals and train tracks.
Sone's inspiration for these pieces comes from his love of landscapes and aversion to national borders. Here he wanted a terrain uninterrupted by boundary lines. Sone has also created a Canary Island palm tree made from rattan. The thin pliable stems have been woven around metal armature, and hand painted to include a natural variation in pigmentation.