The artist Jacob Hashimoto works with traditional Japanese kite forms-- handcrafted of bamboo sticks, off-set prints and string-- and catches the air. His kites are hung together, creating 'works' which read on the surface and yet are swaying in the wind. Other directions of his work include installations with similar air-displacers: wooden trees with balloons as leaves, a beautiful hanging of white bamboo discs which move in the air whenever a viewer passes by.
These delicate moves, registering the change in air and environment, are the spirit (it seems to me) of Hashimoto's work. Instead of fixed objects, his are alive and responding to their surroundings. There is mobility and also delicacy: the thin paper, the small amount of air needed. Air we would not have even notice-- but these works are designed to be attuned to the subtle atmosphere.
