Yuka Nomura (JP): The Cherry Pit Spat Out by the Sky
For the Cherry Orchard in the Brezina Forest Park in Trenčín, Japanese artist Yuka Nomura will create a new permanent installation — a sculpture in the shape of a cherry pit. The artistic concept of the work is based on the symbolism of the pit as a carrier of life and a symbol of the continuity of the natural cycle. The pit embodies the image of a vessel carrying new life, while also resembling a shelter concealing something unknown — a story or a being waiting to be discovered.
In the Cherry Orchard, where the work will be installed, the trees have repeatedly borne fruit for many years. Cherries have been consumed by birds and humans alike; birds have carried the seeds further across the landscape through their droppings, while people, after enjoying the sweet flesh, have spat the pits back onto the ground. This simple act has been repeated within the continuous cycle of nature, where the end of one story becomes the beginning of another.
The work builds upon the natural processes connected to the Cherry Orchard: the repeated bearing of fruit, the dispersal of seeds, and the relationship between nature, humans, and other living beings. Nomura creates a sculpture inspired by the form of a spacecraft — or perhaps by a cherry pit spat out by someone at a particular moment in their life. Using wood, straw, and clay, she transforms an ordinary natural fragment into an object carrying the ideas of journey, birth, and hidden potential.
The work is created with financial support from the EU Japan Fest Committee.
Yuka Nomura
Born in Gifu, Japan in 1994, Yuka Nomura completed her M.F.A. in Sculpture at the Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts, in 2019. In 2017, she participated in an exchange program at the Royal College of Art. Nomura explores the fundamental forces that shape everyday life, society, and nature, expressing the distinct sense of time that flows through them in her sculptures and installations.
Her major exhibitions include Aperto 21: Yuka Nomura – Golden River (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa); Artist-in-Residence Program 2026: A New Place (Art Gallery Miyauchi, Hiroshima, 2026); TOKAS-Emerging 2025: Solo Exhibition “Glowing Mountain” (Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo, Tokyo, 2025); Kobe Rokko Meets Art 2024 beyond (Rokko Alpine Botanical Garden, Hyogo, 2024); and GO FOR KOGEI 2023 (Rakusuitei Museum of Art, Toyama, 2023).
Selected Works by Yuka Nomura (JP)
In her earlier work, Yuka Nomura also explores the relationship between people, nature, and the environments that surround us. Through sculpture and site-specific installations, she engages with natural forms, movement, and the passage of time. Her works often appear as traces of a particular moment or subtle natural event, transforming it into a new narrative and an invitation to observe the landscape more attentively.
My Planet, 2024. Photo: Daisuke Kuroda
A Turtle Looked Out of the Pond and Dived, 2022. Photo: Takeru Kuroda
