KOYAMA TAISUKE

Around 160 years ago, a crew member of Commodore Perry’s fleet, anchored off the coast of Uraga, reportedly threw a bottle into the sea. While no accurate record remains of when or where this began, people at the time are said to have collected foreign bottles that had washed ashore, keeping them as curiosities.

This project began when, during a field survey for SENSE ISLAND 2022, the artist visited the beach on Sarushima and collected more glass fragments than he could carry in his hands—within just a short moment at dusk. Known as sea glass, these pieces drift in the ocean for 20 to 40 years, sometimes over a century, before eventually arriving on a shore.

Through his research, Koyama visited beaches and coastlines from Yokosuka to Kurihama, collecting about 5 kilograms of sea glass over several days of beachcombing. He photographed the surfaces of these fragments, each etched with traces of time and abrasion.

The resulting work, drifts, attempts to visualize the invisible fragments still adrift in the sea.
At the Mikasa Terminal, which overlooks the ocean, it is presented as a large-scale stained-glass-like installation using the building itself. On the opposite shore, at the Sarushima lookout point, it appears as a tablecloth overlooking the sea.