“Isolating myself in the Australian bush elicits a spring of self-understanding. Experiencing detachment from civilisation leads me back to a renewed awareness of connections and a sense of belonging within society. Seeing beyond Silence is inspired by the radical development of information technology, which at once offers both a closer proximity to the world and connections to individuals on social networks. Accumulated personal data gives rise to the sensation of a virtual image of myself; self which interfaces with greater number and variety of people without physical connection occurring. The vessel is evocative of an abstracted human figure. The object offers a complex surface created through grinding and polishing, yielding an ethereal shell perforated by organic-shaped voids and interlaced with a continuous optical fibre. Seeking dialogue with my work I am compelled to query what connection means to me and how I belong to the elaborate networks of our society.” - Yusuké Takemura, 2019