"Air that is Heaven" 空其天 ĀKĀŚĀ-DEVALOKA

The dark outline of a meditating figure seems to float in a sea of stars against the background of a nebula. Yet the figure itself is transparent and the stars shine through, suggesting that the individual’s interior, made visible to us, is none other than the cosmos itself.

At the figure’s head, chest and abdomen are three circular diagrams descending in size, differing only in the color of the very center. The design, based on a 17th-century German Rosicrucian text, presents a vision of an ordered spiritual cosmos that permeates the individual as well as the wider universe. This glimpse of an invisible reality, based on Yokoo’s engagement with the imagery of Western Esoteric traditions, seems to parallel the Tibetan Body Mandala, with the deities of an elaborate cosmology arranged within a human figure.

Yokoo’s graphic genius, however, energizes the work. Colorful imagery from Indian incense packages frames the top and bottom, and a beam of rainbow light streaks diagonally across the stars. Note the tiny flying saucer that seems to be traveling within the beam.