YOSHITAKA AZUMA created the Earth By for Issue 18 of PLANETº, which is our ongoing series of personal interpretations of Earth by some of today’s top international artists. Azuma, a Kyoto-based artist who has been generating international buzz since his debut in New York in late 2005, and then again in 2006 at a group show at Dietch Projects, is best known for his layered silhouettes of young girls whose insides are made up of a kaleidoscope of associative imagery – including snakes and forests and animals and car crashes – that provokes a profound sensory and psychological experience in the viewer. We are honored to feature his mysterious, symbolic vision.