Yuki Iiyama

Yuki Iiyama (飯山 由貴, Iiyama Yuki, b. 1988) is a Japanese contemporary artist and lecturer at Tama Art University.

Iiyama explores the themes of social stigma, representation and the interaction of the individual with society, through archival materials, video works, installations and community workshops.

Education and early life
Iiyama was born in Kanagawa prefecture. Prior to her enrolment in high school, Iiyama's primary interactions with artistic expressions were from sources such as anime, manga, cinematic productions, and subculture. Her mother and grandmother suggested a "feminine" profession like nursing, and from this she originally thought she might become an art teacher. Upon entering high school she studied in art yobiko as well, aiming to pass the competitive exams at Tokyo University of the Arts.

After taking one year out after high school she passed the exam for Joshibi University of Art and Design where she went on to receive a bachelor's degree in Oil Painting in 2011. She then received an MFA in oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2013.

Major Projects
Iiyama's work contextualises structural issues that relate to institutions and the individual, often informed by personal experience.

Mindscapes (2022)
Iiyama's work with the Wellcome Trust examined the issue of domestic violence, which was an issue that the artist also had personally experienced. In a wider global context, the issue at the center of Iiyama's work worsened during the Covid-19 Pandemic—an increase was observed in violence and coercive control affecting interpersonal relationships since many people were trapped in closed quarters in their homes. The work created an anonymous interactive space where visitors could share and release distressing effects of intimate partner violence, and learn about the structural parts of the problem. The installation was featured in the Mori Art Museum's exhibition "Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning: Our Wellbeing since the Pandemic" (June 29–November 6, 2022)

We Walk and Talk to Search Your True Home (2022)
A solo exhibition at Tokyo Metropolitan Human Rights Plaza that posed questions about the boundary between patients and non-patients in mental health disorders based on the artist's experience and co-created works with her sister who has mental health conditions, "Going to Look for Your True Home" and "Going to Meet Kannon at the Sea,". The work "Hidden Names" looked at a wider discussion around how psychiatric facilities function and how those with mental disorders are treated. A special filming of the documentary In-Mates (2021) was also to be screened but was stopped by censors due to its subject matter relating to two Korean mental health patients in pre-World War II Japan. The films were originally commissioned by the Japan Foundation.

100 Living Tales
Video installation works concerning the "mysterious stories" collected from people living on the islands of Setouchi in the inland sea. Presented at Setouchi Triennale (2016) and Yokohama Triennale (2020)

Representation
Iiyama is represented by the gallery WAITINGROOM.

Public Collections
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi

Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka

Her video, “Cinematic Prism” was screened at the AIT room, Daikanyama, Tokyo

Censorship
In 2022, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government censored a planned screening of Iiyama's film "In-Mates" (2021) which is a documentary-style film created together with the rapper, poet and 2.5-generation "Zainichi" Korean resident FUNI, inspired by medical records of patients admitted to the Oji Brain Hospital in Tokyo, which was a psychiatric facility. The documentary looked at the records of two Korean patients admitted between 1930 and 1940 and featured themes of disability and race prior to World War II.

The censorship happened in the context of Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike avoiding the customary commemoration of the massacre of Korean residents in Tokyo during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, seen by many as historical denialism.

Iiyama's censorship joins many other cases of censorship in Japan, particularly in the field of art.