Interview: Jacob Hashimoto Relates How Narrative and Landscape Abstraction Inform How He Thinks About Space

“The Eclipse” (2017-2018), acrylic, bamboo, screen prints, paper, wood, and cotton. St. Cornelius Chapel, Governors Island, New York. Photo by Erin O’Hara. All images © Jacob Hashimoto, shared with permission

In the suspended worlds of upstate New York-based artist Jacob Hashimoto (previously), a multitude of undulating forms and layers begin with a kite, a single element he discusses in a new interview supported by Colossal Members.

Each screen-printed disc is inspired by his surroundings, pop culture, and current events, and the individual components are assembled into fields in a vast range of vivid colors, patterns, and sizes, from wall works to elaborate architectural installations. Hashimoto describes the kite elements as “pixels,” nodding to his interest in virtual realms and world-building. Game design and 3D-modeling software have inspired an evolving interest in layers, multiplication, and movement around physical space.

Film and gaming in these built virtual environments are becoming really important. They also have this ability to tell us a lot about our culture…As somebody who comes out of this language of post-war American painting and abstraction, and the intersection of those two vocabularies, ignoring digital landscape work is folly, because I think it’s where a lot of really important action is.

In this conversation, Colossal editor Kate Mothes speaks with Hashimoto about the significance of personal narrative, the evolution of technology and its influence on the ways that we perceive our surroundings, and the importance of teaching yourself new skills.