Yu Matsuda

This work originates from a poplar trunk measuring about 1.6 m in diameter,from which a 230 cm block was extracted, sliced into 0.8 mm veneers, and reassembled in order over a mold. By layering 280 irregular contours, it reconstructs solid wood that bends at a calculated angle.
Trees inherently root into the earth and rise toward the sky, evoking power beyond human scale. Milling them into standardized forms allows control, yet erases their spatial and temporal vastness and disconnects us from the larger world they once embodied.
Without passing through this conventional process, the piece retains the tree’s original irregularity while granting it human functionality. It subtly reminds us that the relationship between people and the world—long divided by efficiency and technique—has always been fundamentally continuous.

This work was realized in collaboration with MARUKEI WOOD VENEER in Makinohara, Shizuoka, through involvement in processes upstream of conventional woodworking — from the selection of the log itself to sawing and veneer production.
The process of producing veneer while preserving the original contour of the tree is itself an unprecedented and experimental undertaking.
The uniqueness of this work does not reside solely in its final form, but in the methodology behind it. By varying the selection of trees and the geometry of the molds, this approach suggests the potential for a wide range of future developments and expressions.

With the aim of promoting exchange between Taiwanese and Japanese designers and raising awareness about the reuse of marine waste, ten designers from Taiwan and Japan designed capsule toys in the shape of maneki-neko (beckoning cats) using plastic from marine waste.
When we heard that the material used for this project was “marine plastic,” we realized that although we knew the term, we had no concrete understanding of what it actually looked like. What shape does it take? How heavy is it? What does it feel like? What does it smell like? How much of it exists, and where? We had no real sense of these things. We considered this to be one of the issues with sustainable materials. Recycled materials are collected, processed, and distributed far from the lives of individual consumers, and ultimately reach our hands, but the connection between this process and our lives feels fragmented and lacking in reality. What is needed is a sense of connection between marine plastic as a material and our daily lives, even if mediated by something else. And that sense of connection can only be found in the real ocean.

This time, we viewed the “maneki-neko” as a motif to gain a sense of ocean plastic. We walked along the nearby coast (Enshu-nada) within our living area, collected various plastics that had washed ashore, and used them as materials to create an “original” maneki-neko. The completed maneki-neko, approximately 300mm in height, is made entirely from plastic materials that we happened to collect. We then digitized it, created a mold, and replicated it using recycled plastic made from 100% reused polystyrene foam, which is marine debris. The replicas are distributed as capsule toys. The Maneki Neko distributed in this way can be said to be a “replica” of the drifted plastic debris that actually exists in this world and that we have experienced firsthand.
Using mass production methods such as capsule toys, we aim to spread awareness of marine plastic pollution to as many people as possible. This is also an attempt to raise social awareness of the lack of awareness surrounding stereotypical “sustainable materials.”

Expanding the possibilities of wallpaper in Japan, the wallpaper designs of the brand “WhO” provide wallpaper designs that are suitable for Japanese homes and spaces and appeal to Japanese sensibilities.
Using inkjet printing, countless dots were randomly arranged to create a huge pattern measuring 9m wide by 2.7m high. The dot sizes vary, ranging from several millimeters in diameter to as small as 0.2 millimeters. The number of dots perceived constantly changes depending on factors such as the distance from the wall, the time of day (morning or night), differences in vision, and the direction of one’s attention.
Just as there are countless stars in the darkness between stars that cannot be seen with the naked eye, there are always varying numbers of “visible dots” and “invisible dots” at any given moment.
This design was conceived based on the question of whether wallpaper printing can form a relationship with people as a “unique phenomenon” in its own right, rather than as a “substitute for something else” or “someone’s image.”
Inkjet printing is also composed of countless ink dots that cannot be perceived by the naked eye. Beyond the intended dots lie countless smaller, unintended dots.

This object is made of a zelkova branch that was picked up at about 10:48 AM on August 10, 2022, at a distance of 60 meters southeast of this location, near the main entrance of Omotesando Hills. I copied the shape of the branch as it looked when I picked it up, replaced the material with plastic, and copied it into 2,000 pieces. Furthermore, like a toy block, the pieces of the same branch are processed so that they can be connected infinitely.
An original zelkova branch is a natural object that just happened to be there, and no other form of the same tree exists, and if someone had stepped on it before or after the timing of its discovery, it might have changed to a different form. In a sense, this branch is the product of chance, formed from the only intersection of infinite space and time. By duplicating it 2,000 times, arranging it regularly, and creating a large sculpture, I wondered if I could create an effect like a magnifying glass that would clarify the uniqueness of its existence.

Every intersection of space and time contains different conditions for “being”. Imagining them is also the minimal action of drawing the object out of the myriad of neutral, boundary-blurring existences and into human society. Not only the things which can be touched but also what is somewhere far away. What once existed and the possibility of what could exist in the future. We invite into our consciousness the possibility of the existence of all things and try to comprehend them as equivalent. What do the world and Omotesando look like from there?

UO created two sculptures for the “Kakegawa Tea Ennale 2020+1” in Kakegawa City, Shizuoka Prefecture, one of Japan’s leading tea-producing regions. In “Teapot Group B as Surroundings for Tea,” a lid with a spout of a kyusu is placed over a variety of ready-made objects that hold liquid. The viewer can imagine the overlapping meanings of the various ready-made objects, which look like kyusu (teapots), by looking at their hybrid appearance. The various meanings discovered by the viewer’s individual interpretation could be the seed for a new way of Japanese tea ceremony in this city.
What we have designed is the rule of “kyusu lid” itself, and we have not defined the meaning of the individual objects that result from this rule. We designed the rule not on the value or meaning of the object itself, but on how we can define the rule to maximize its effect when its purpose is “to be a catalyst for an idea for someone unknown”.