AOTM (April)

- Yosuke Amemiya -

It’s already the end of April and truth be told the prospect springtime with the flowers growing and the sun glowing couldn’t be more exciting as the season develops. But with a new month beings a new Artists of the Month (AOTM) so here we go. With lots going on recently I have not been researching and learning about any newer artists as much but here is one artist that really fascinates me, and whose work I have thought about regularly since discovering him.

To date no piece of art has struck and intrigued me to the same extent a these melting melting apples. Created by Yosuke Amemiya, the distortion of a regular object such as an apple challenges the viewer to question what is considered ‘instantly recognisable’. Amemiya strives to create apples that can be identified as apples universally which he has done through a long process of studying apples from around the world. The shape, colourations and marks in the apple skin are carefully studied, as well as the length and angle of stalks that can vary depending where apples are grown.

Amemiya then distorts these architectured shapes before he carving the final form of the apples out of wood and begins the painting process that finalises the illusion of a melting apple. With extremely precise colour matching and paint application through fine brushstrokes the apples are brought to life.

The apples encourage us to question what we know and how or why we accept these as ultimate fact. There is certainly a deeper philosophical debate to be had about these apples but Amemiya’s attempts to bend our knowledge of fact are remarkable and the apples surely shocked me initially, and still do.

Watch here to see more of Yosuke Amemiya’s process for generating the most globally identifiable Apple ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we8ydpmy7nU