Obeying Ants Yukinori Yanagi Born 1961

Obeying Ants
Yukinori Yanagi
Born 1961 Fukuoka , Japan
Musashino Art University, BA, fine arts in painting; MFA, painting
1990 Yale University, MFA, Fellowship in Arts, sculpture
Lives and works in New York City and Okayama City, Japan
198~
Yokinuri Yanagi explores the attitude of humans toward other living creatures. The rela tionship between human and animals is one of the characteristics that differentiate
cultures. It is also a major determinant of human behavior. Yanagi neither subscribes to
the Judea-Christian belief that humans have been granted dominion over lesser creatures,
nor does he uphold cultural traditions that identify animals as revered totem progenitors.
He chose, instead , to enlist an animal as his equal, his artistic collaborator. The creature
who was honored in this manner, however, is distant from humans on the evolutionary
ladder. Indeed, it is not even a mammal. Yanagi chose to create art with an ant, an
insect that is normally considered neither beautiful, individuated, endearing, nor directly
useful to human enterprises.
Yukinori Yanagi crawls on his hands and knees in a determined effort to record the meanderings of a single ant with a red crayon. It is the ant, not the artist, who determines the
linear configuration of the resulting drawing, a work of ethereal delicacy and beauty.
Yanagi will exhibit this drawing as his creation with the title Wandering Piece, which establishes the priority of the ant's perspective over the human's. Although he abducted this
tiny creature from its colony and drafted it into the service of art, it is the artist who is
following the ant's trail . Yanagi explains, "I let the ant [be] free to wander. It creates a
natural line." 1 But the artist assumed control when he laid out four five-and-a-half-foot
steel beams coated with grease to prevent the ant from escaping . They mark the limits of
the resulting drawing . These beams serve as the enclosure for the creative act that lasts
several days. All the while the human member of the team crawls awkwardly, like a
regressed toddler, behind the agile ant. Throughout this entire period the ant scurries
with superhuman energy. It is only the artist who shows signs of fatigue. That is when
a tiny vial is placed over the ant to suspend its travels until its human partner has rested
and the drawing can be resumed.
Interpreting the work's meaning is entirely dependent upon the artist's attitude toward
the ant. Part of the process involves pursuing symbolic clues. Although Yanagi has
reversed the conventional human use of animals as pets, food, or transport, he maintains the metaphorical role that animals commonly play in art and literature. In these
contexts animals are frequently anthropomorphized while humans are "animomorphized."
In both cases, they are decked out in the guise of metaphors designed to help humans
better understand themselves. Contemporary media offers such a menagerie. Cars are
associated with mustangs, thunderbirds, cougars, and impalas. Professional sports
teams include the Denver Broncos, the Seattle Sea Hawks, and the Baltimore Orioles.
Exxon is personified as a tiger; Hartford Insurance aligns itself with the elk. Alternatively,
human behaviors are explained in accordance with animal traits. A person is as sly as a
fox, as sloppy as a pig , as biJsy as a bee, as silly as a goose , as eager as a beaver, as
stubborn as a mule, and so forth. But what are we humans like when we act like an
ant? Does the ant exemplify perseverance, social organization, anonymity, endurance,
or insignificance/
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Yukinori Yanagi , Wandering Position (1997) . 17 x 17 feet, ant, wax crayon. stee l angle. Courtesy of the artist. Photograph~iho Aihara.
Obeying Ants : Yukinori Yanagi
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The power dynamic that Yanagi enacts with the ant in this work of art is complicated.
Although he conscripted the ant into artistic service, he abandoned himself to the ant's
aesthetic discretion. Likewise, although the ant is a mere speck of life and the artist is a
representative of human intelligence and ingenuity, the artist kowtows to his minuscule
master. Nonetheless, the ant appears to be unaware of its ascension up the evolutionary
ladder to attain the status of an artistic partner. It even appears oblivious to the hulking
human mass many times its weight and size that stalks its every move. Nevertheless, the
ant's scurrying and zigzagging behaviors do not seem mindless. The dense concentration
of lines at the perimeter of the drawing reveals its determination to traverse the border
of the steel beams and resume its duties as an anonymous contributor to the well-being
of its community.
Yanagi has repeated this work on many occasions and in different locations. Often the
resulting drawing is exhibited along with a video showing the work in the process of being
created. This enables audiences to go beyond delighting in the linear configuration and
explore possible relationships between the artist and the ant. Yanagi may be a stalker or a
disci pie. The ant may be the captive or the leader. Either may assume the role of art catalyst or collaborator. Answers depend upon the artist's attitude. Did he intend for viewers to
chuckle at his preposterous humiliation or seek a solemn message in his humble demeanor?
Clues to the intended meaning of this work of art are intimated by the long duration, the
earnest solemnity, and the acceptance of discomfort that characterizes the artist's creative
act. But even prior to lifting the crayon and making the first mark, Yanagi reveals the seriousness of his intent. He spends several days in the room designated for the creation of
this work. His demeanor is as quiet and attentive as a master calligrapher preparing
himself for the creative act.
Attitude is also revealed in the artist's manner of presenting his work, which is as precise,
as restrained, and as carefully considered as his manner of creating it. The steel beams that
enclose the ant and the artist are specially sized and meticulously placed within the gallery
space. Once the drawing is completed, Yanagi and his ant vacate the performance arena.
Then the artist carefully lifts one end of each beam, rotates it slightly outward, and then
lays it back upon the floor. The degree of this rotation and the precision of its placement
are calculated and recalculated until the exact position is determined so that viewers can
observe both the drawing and evidence of its production.
Finally, attitude is conveyed through the artist's aesthetic decisions. Although the ant's
lines comprise a convoluted tangle, the artist's calm deliberation is revealed by the tidy
square within which the drawing is enclosed and the gently diverging steel beams that
surround it. There is nothing frivolous, impulsive, or immoderate to distract from the
artist's serious intent. Attention is paid to every detail. "The piece is my own meditation,"
Yanagi explains. "Constructing this work is very calming, although it is hard on my knees
and back. The piece wants to be like a stone garden, really simple. But the content has
deep meaning. Like the garden, the work is framed off from the world. We can find great
spiritual meaning there."
But further examination reveals that the attitudes that pervade this work also derive from
the artist's personal history. Yanagi calls his ants "friends." This friendship began when he
was a child. "I grew up in the countryside. My toys were insects, fish, birds. I liked to look
at their habits and activities. I played with insects, especially the ant. It is a familiar animal
to me. I made ant farms, collected moth larvae in their pupa stage and fed them money
EXPRESSING AN ARTISTIC ATTITUDE
in the form of prewar paper bills that my grandmother gave me. I liked to watch them spin
cocoons that were made of money. I also made maps from an ant's eye level, show ing a
little stone as a huge mountain, and grasses as forests." Thus, long before he became an
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artist, Yanagi imagined the world from an ant's perspective. From early on, he pondered
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the issues that wou ld later become all consuming, that "an t s and humans have missions.
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But an ant's mission is predetermined. Their functions are the same as ours-to acquire
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food, to procreate and rear our young, to preserve our safety, but they are also totally
different from us. We may watch their relentless labors and think, are they tired/ Are they
hungry? Are they forced?" 2
As he grew up , ants ceased being playthings and became allegories for Yukinori him self.
He explains, "At schoo l, I was like an ant zigzagging and devouring whateve r I happe ned
to find along the way." After studying art in schoo l, he says, he became increasingly re stless as an oil painting major. His desire to explore less conventional modes of art-making
explains w hy he commemorated his graduation by burning his paintings and depositing
the ashes in woode n boxes. These remains were exhibited in a Tokyo gallery along wi th a
small glass bo x filled w ith dirt and, significantly, ants. He describes the feeling "of being
trapped in a giant japanese nag, in a cage, engulfed, suffocated by national identity! Three
years into my career, I realized that I was just like the ants in the glass case working in a
limited area. I was driven by an irresistible desire to get out of the ghetto called japan."
Yanagi explains this need through his own history. "I was born and raised in Fukuoka, the
japanese prefecture closest to the Korean Peninsula. In our island nation , where people are
barel y conscious of the national boundaries, I was occasionally forced to recognize the existence of a foreign country right next door. We often found , for example, everyday objects
marked wi th Korean characters in the debri s washed up on shore. To the ja pane se, however,
'outsid e' does not only refer to countries across the sea, but also to people living in japan:
Korean and Chinese, native Ainu, and Okinawans."
In 1988, Yanagi escaped these cultural strictures by moving to the United States and
enrolling in the graduate art program at Yale University. There he began to apply hi s
childhood ability to experience the world from the ant's perspective to the grown-up
urge to envision a more perfect social system. Yanagi's friend, the ant, introduced him to
a model of consummate socia l organization. "I am interested in the fact th at the ant is
a member of a complete society, but this society differs from people's. Human society is
continually being constructed and is constantly changing. Ant society is perfectly o rg anized. It is completely perfect. The meaning of perfection is ve ry important for my work ." In
fact, the ant colony is a model of the nawless coordination of specialized duties . Ants have
professions. Queen ants are the egg producers who never leave their subterranean obstetrical wards. Nurse ants dig cavities for the larva e and tend to the cocoons. Harvester ants
store seeds underground after nipping the radicle from each grain to prevent sp routing.
Farmer ants grow fungus by fertilizing underground gardens with their own excrement.
Wo rker ants clean house, construct elaborate architecture, and pave roadways . Shepherding
ants tend nocks of plant lice by building shelters fo r them and milking them. Hunting ants
wo rk in packs to kill other insects. Humans can only dream of the communal efficiency
that prevails within an ant's soc ial colony. This reputation even extends back to biblical times
when King Solomon advised. "Co nsider the ant's ways, and be wise," suggesting that aboveground cities would be we ll served to emulate the ant's intricate underground metropoli ses.
At the same time, Yanagi seems to have harbored doubts about the mindless obedience
required to erect such a perfectly functioning society. "If the travels of the ant show us
Obeying Ants: Yukinori Yanagi
239
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anything, it is that he wants to escape in order to go back home. to resume the task he
has been programmed to perform , not to acquire freedom." Such reservation s emerged after
Yanagi undertook to decipher japan's political past at the Yale University library, where he
studied the Western version of World War II. The son of a soldier who volunteered to be a
kamikaze pilot during the war, Yanagi examined hi s country's unquestioned acceptance of
the emperor. In ancient japanese mythology, the emperor is considered a direct descendant
of the Sun Goddess; for centuries , he was worshipped as a sacred progenitor and the highest
priest of Shintoism, the nation's official religion. State ideology cultivated unwavering
loyalty and dutiful compliance. Yanagi came to realize that, "All these people died for the
emperor because they thought he was a god, and it turned out that he was just a small
man with a human voice." Obedience remained ingrained even after the Emperor renounced
claims to divinity in 1945. Many citizens found an alternative repository for allegiance in
the business corporation. This cultural context helps explain Yanagi's national concerns.
"My works are borders I have had to cross or barriers I have confronted in trying to define
myself as a japanese ," 3 says Yanagi. The dutiful ant is a metaphor for the confining influence
of japan's government and education.
Yet Yanagi and his tiny consort confront the discrepancy between the self and community
that applies to all societies . "I think that individual expression is always controlled in
some way in every nation state. For instance, in the U.S., interrogation about the atomic
bombs of Hiroshima/Nagasaki is taboo and controlled. What I intend to do through
my work, dealing with issues related to myself, particularly about the nation state called
japan, is to suggest and investigate the issues which are universal to every modern nation
state." These issues apply to the United States as well . By demonstrating that "ants don't
know national boundaries," 4 Yanagi's ants serve as allegories for the process of shifting
primary allegiances away from all national territories . They demonstrate how to optimize the unification of all peoples. Once national borders are ignored, people are liberated
from oppressive political influences. They finally are free to pursue personal visions. Indeed,
the contemporary world seems to be evolving in this direction . The coexi stence of a melange
of races and cultures increasingly characterizes the nations ofthe world, diminishing the
influence of place in determining people's values. Furthermore, advanced technologies do
not respect borders. As a result, fences and no-trespassing signs and border patrols and
passports and visas no longer contain human experience. Yanagi addresses the erosion
of these separatist cultural forces by asking, "Do the ghettos of nations, ethnic groups,
and religions truly determine personal identities?" 5 An ongoing series of works known
as the World Flog Ant Farms explores this theme. It, too. engages the concept of wandering
explored in Yanagi's drawings, but here the wanderings are enacted by hordes of living
ants as they cross the metaphorical borders of nations and enact the contest between
sovereignty and community. For one of these farms, in 1990, Yanagi constructed 170
Ple xiglas boxes linked by plastic tubing. Each box was filled with colored sand arranged
to form the flag of one of the members of the United Nations. Into this system , masses
of live harvester ants were released. The ants performed their normal activities by scurrying through the tubes and between the flags. Like refugees. tourists, explorers . and
emissaries, they traveled from nation to nation. As they crossed these "borders." they
dragged particles of colored sand with them, mi xing the grains of one flag with the
grains of the others. illustrating the mighty power of the meek to destabilize powerful
institutions. As the ants disintegrated the borders, the flags lost their national identities
and became. in Yanagi's own words, "a simple , equal, and hopeful way of expressing the
gradual unification of all the world's nations." Gradually, the neatly differentiated flags
became intermingled in the same manner that people stream across borders carrying
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Yuk inori Yanag i , Asia Pacific Ant Farm (1994) , each box 12 x 18 inches, total 36 boxes, ants, colored sand, plastic box, plastic tube , an d plastic pipe .
Courtesy of the artist. Co llection ofTakamatsu City Museum of Art, Takamatsu, japan. Photograph: Taku Saiki.
Obeying Ants: Yukinori Yanagi
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Yukinori Yanagi, Asia Pacific Ant Farm (1994) deta il , each box 12 x 18 inches. total 36 boxes, ants. co lored sa nd . plastic box , pla stic tube, and plastic
pipe. Courtesy of the artist. Co llection ofTakamatsu City Museum of Art. Takamatsu, Japan. Photograph: Taku Sa iki.
EXPRESSING AN ARTISTIC ATTITUDE
aspects of their native cultures with them . As in Wandering, power positions were exchanged.
The miniscule insects accomplished what treaties and wars failed to do-they united peoples
ac ross the globe. As Hafiz the great Sufi poet from the 14th century, wrote, "God blooms
fro m the shoulder of the elephant who becomes courteous to the ant." 6
Att itude constructs the lenses through which each artist views his or her world. Awareness
of an artist's attitude permits viewers to perceive an artwork as its creator sees it. Yanagi's
moti ve, mood, and social principles prevent his diminutive collaborator from coming across
as a participant in a trivial farce. Indeed , a consideration ofYanagi's attitude-revealing qualities casts the ant in a performan ce of epic proportions that addresses suc h hefty themes
as freedom, patriotism, will, compulsion, responsibility, loyalty, and globalism. Yanagi
explains, "Like my ant, people live confined in side a frame wh ich is their social system.
But people also need freedom .... People may think that the nation gives them identity,
but it's not so. Ethnic groups and religion s don't give personal identities either. Nations,
ethnicities, religions are all ghettos. They are all surrounded by imaginary boundaries
born out of social or institutional constructs. Inside the ghettos, people sha re illusions."
Presumably, the shared illu sio ns he refers to replace person al visions. Yanagi's message is
eternally pertinent, "Identity can come only through yourself."
Unless otherwise noted, al l quotes from an interview with the art ist, December 22, 1997.
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4
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From an inte rview with the artist. December 26 , 1997.
Carol Lutfy, 'Ta king On the Taboos in japan," International Herald Tribune, 19 August 1995.
jeffrey Deitch , Border Crawl (Seou l: Kukje Ga llery, 1995).
s. "A japanese Clay Figurine's Thoughts, " in Wandering Positions: Yukinori Yanagi (Benesse Island: Maoshima Contemporary Art Museum , 1993), n.p.
6. Hafiz, The Gift Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master, trans . Daniel Ladinsky (New York: Pangu i n Compa ss, 1997), 87.
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