Yuriko
Terazaki

Yuriko Terazaki uses black colored pencil to depict the beauty of handcrafted objects and spaces that have stood the test of time. Her subjects include historic libraries and bookshelves, theatres, staircases and musical instruments. Her drawings are intricate renditions of vestiges of science and knowledge, and of the accumulation of time. Through these depictions, she captures the presence of the creative hands of those who came before us.

One of her major works, Corpus Christi, Oxford (2001), was inspired by a visit to the University of Oxford to explore its historic libraries. The tranquil interior, rendered in fine lines, and the bookshelves lined with rows of leather-bound spines exude an almost sacred air, reflecting their status as steadfast repositories of knowledge. Even before libraries could easily be explored online, Terazaki was travelling in person to cities with centuries of heritage around the world. She knocked on heavy doors and was granted access to private learning spaces, which were otherwise closed. Many of her artworks were thus created.

Among them is Chetham's Library #1 (2024), a drawing of the oldest public library in Britain, showing the medieval practice of chaining valuable books to the shelves. This superb depiction of the sturdy chains and the texture of time-worn paper transcend mere photorealism, capturing the knowledge, thoughts, stories and memories accumulated in the library.

For Terazaki, the staircase is as significant a motif as the library. In her 2020 work, Wells Cathedral Staircase, she depicts the timeless stairways leading to the cathedral’s Chapter House. A hint of light illuminates the stone steps, yet the scene, shrouded in darkness as you ascend, seems to hint at something beyond; perhaps an unknown story or cherished memory. This aligns with Terazaki’s description of darkness as “a portal to another world.” She has said that the stairs symbolize her childhood fascination with the darkness, and her personal “temps perdu.” Terazaki has also created drawings of the various staircases she has encountered while travelling. These include the staircases at L’Hôtel in Paris, which were probably climbed by Oscar Wilde towards the end of his life, and the staircase of the Grand Palais.

Meanwhile, her series of musical instruments is meticulously detailed, as if tracing the skilled hands of the artisan. From the grandeur of a pipe organ seemingly gazed from below to the graceful curves of a violin, these works reflect Terazaki’s belief that music can be as much a visual feast as an aural one.

In all her works, Terazaki begins with a specific detailed drawing, over which she applies multiple strokes of black. The scenes that emerge through this seemingly fruitless method of depiction—whereby fine details disappear during the rendering process—evoke the profound, rich and irreversible accumulation of time.