Japanese artist Yoshiyuki Katayama highlights the relationship between insects and flowers through exceptional videos. For eight years, he has been adding new work to his ongoing Umwelt series. The work merges a time-lapse video of flowers blooming together with insects crawling on the plants in slow motion.
This makes for a dynamic composite as the slow motion and time-lapse create a hypnotic video. Named after a German word that roughly translates to “self-centered world,” Umwelt is a way for Katayama to extract beauty from living things. And at the same time, it allows him to bring the public along for the adventure, pushing them to join him in his appreciation for the natural world.
“I have always been fascinated by nature, mainly insects and plants, because their existence is derived from the same power that also lives inside me,” he shares. “I love how flowers and plants are a riot of color and a medley of shapes, with delicately made antennae, petals, and leaves. I also enjoy watching the mechanism of life unfold in a small, confined space. The process of how natural life rises, grows, and then falls away captivates me. I look deeply into flora and fauna as if they were parts of me, and create a piece from that place of respect.”
The series has been screened at numerous institutions and film festivals, earning several awards for its creative imagery. Katayama doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. He regularly publishes Umwelt videos on Vimeo and Instagram, proving that nature’s inspiration never fades.
Umwelt is Japanese video artist Yoshiyuki Katayama’s evocative series of flower and insect videos.
He creates these hypnotic videos by combining a time-lapse of flowers blooming with a slow-motion video of insects.
“The process of how natural life rises, grows, and then falls away captivates me.”
Yoshiyuki Katayama: Website | Instagram | Vimeo
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