The aesthetics enshrined within the material of bamboo - its lustre, strength and resilience - represent the foundations of Japanese beauty. A new generation of artists have wielded the material with a new-found vigour, breathing life into its unique textures as a compelling material within contemporary art. Osamu Yokoyama (b.1980) is one such artist, who finds within bamboo an ideal material for self-expression. For it is within its bends and curves, its ability to be cut, bound and stretched to its limits, that one can find the meandering, ethereal and poignant vicissitudes of life itself.

Surprisingly, Yokoyama does not do any drawings, sketches or pre-planning before creating a work, and much like a jazz musician, creates his work through inspired improvisation. To capture a beauty unable to be expressed by any other means, Yokoyama wields bamboo with the resolute urgency of now.