SASA Gallery, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
July 31 – 2 August 2024

This exhibition draws from the archive of Japanese architect Shoei Yoh to showcase for the first time in Australia a selection of his early interior architecture projects, and explorations of light as matter. Yoh studied abroad in the United States and returned to Japan in 1964. After gaining experience as an interior designer in Tokyo and Fukuoka, he established Yoh Design Office in Fukuoka City in 1970. His early projects, including Cafe Solar + Air Service (1970), Boutique Jolie (1971), and Shoemaker Cornelia (1971), incorporated architectural elements like furniture, floors, and walls that emitted light. In these projects Yoh convey a sense of "lightness" through light. The heat-reflecting glass coating on Cafe Solar + Air Service and the glass and acrylic furniture in Boutique Jolie marked the beginning of Yoh’s fascination with the phenomena of transparency.

Yoh's artistic endeavors are unified by the theme of "light". He designed spaces and objects that interpret light poetically as well as drawing on optical principles. In his early interior projects, Yoh skillfully choreographed light and shadow to distort the perception of gravity. The Coffee Shop Ingot project constructed in 1977 is a pivotal example of glass architecture, that transitions between light reflection and transmission. Throughout the 1980s, in projects like Stainless Steel House with Light Lattice (1980), Yoh continued to explore how space can embody and shape light throughout his career.