Yuji Agematsu Arranges Street Debris into Tiny Daily Sculptures

"Each day, Yuji Agematsu takes a walk for the explicit purpose of scouring the streets. The dried leaf, lost toy, and even the wad of gum discarded on a park bench are his treasures, which he retrieves and places in the clear cellophane that wraps a pack of cigarettes. Although Agematsu no longer smokes, this habit of wandering and collecting has been harder to break: he's been committed to it since 1996."

"Once tucked inside the thin envelope, the artist's findings become an homage to the beauty of the mundane. He arranges trash and other findings almost like ikebana, using a glass shard or cracked stick to find balance and harmony. Objects others would barely notice are materials that represent the human condition and contemporary concerns. In Agematsu's eyes, they reveal a whole host of insights about our individual and collective lives."

Yuji Agematsu walks daily to collect found objects—leaves, lost toys, wads of gum—and stores them in clear cigarette-cellophane packs. He composes these finds like ikebana, using small glass shards or cracked sticks to create balance and harmony in compact sculptures. The collected materials function as metaphors for the human condition and contemporary concerns, revealing variations produced by weather and human ego. Two years of these small works, presented chronologically on white aluminum shelves to resemble a calendar, occupy spaces linked to Donald Judd and a Judd Foundation exhibition titled 2023-2024.

Read at Colossal