Artist: Chisa Yagi Deuel (designer)
Title: Line x Line
Year: 2017-18
Medium: Painted aluminum panels
Location: Osaka International Airport, South and North Terminal Building, runway-side exterior wall (Architectural designed by Yasui Architects & Engineers)
Coordinator: ARTCOURT Gallery

The Osaka International Airport (Itami Airport), which is undergoing renovations with the goal to be completed by 2020, held a pre-opening for its new terminal building in April 2018. It has been nearly 50 years since the airport has been renovated at such as a large scale, with plans of centrally consolidating the arrival gates, and expanding the floor space of the observation deck, where the planes taking off and landing can be seen up close, by 1.5 times.

[Line x Line], a set of art panels designed by Chisa Yagi Deuel, was installed on the exterior wall of this terminal building that is being renovated. Representing the sky and forests through a color gradation, Deuel’s design uses a repetition of slits reminiscent of the feathers on traditional Japanese arrows, and realizes a globally unique, colorful airport facility from the runway-side. Inside the terminal building, the light passing through the panels’ slits create a modern Japanese pattern that produces a graphical space.

The exterior walls, rhythmically set with boldly colored shaded and transparent panels, enhanced not only the design but also substantially improved the energy efficiency of the building. Moreover, the design was selected through a competition, held in January 2017, between three nominees of young local artists and designers.