In 1984, Yamaoka graduated from an art school in Musashino, where she studied oil painting.
In 1991 she became interested in performance as an art form.
Since then her work has encompassed performance, video photography, and installation.

In her performance art, Yamaoaka focuses on how we see objects and things, and on human boundaries.
She has said, "I define my artworks as sculptures depicting action and time and relationship between artist and audience, artist and materials, in which I attempt to create an example of the human condition."

Since the early 1990s, Yamaoka has staged performance exhibitions in Japan and abroad at art festivals and other events as well as in urban environments.
Among the cities where she has returned several times with different exhibitions are her home city of Tokyo, Singapore, Jerusalem, Stockholm, Essen, Boston, Toronto and Warsaw in Poland.
In 2014 she took part in the performance "Friktioner" in Uppsala, Sweden, and later that year she returned to Sweden for an exhibition in Malmö.

In the 29-minute-long film Phenomenology of Truth, she portrays a Japanese artist who one day gets to meet a Warsaw philosopher- whom she has admired at a distance.
In 1984, Yamaoka graduated from an art school in Musashino, where she studied oil painting. In 1991 she became interested in performance as an art form. Since then her work has encompassed performance, video photography, and installation.
In her performance art, Yamaoaka focuses on how we see objects and things, and on human boundaries. She has said, "I define my artworks as sculptures depicting action and time and relationship between artist and audience, artist and materials, in which I attempt to create an example of the human condition."
Since the early 1990s, Yamaoka has staged performance exhibitions in Japan and abroad at art festivals and other events as well as in urban environments. Among the cities where she has returned several times with different exhibitions are her home city of Tokyo, Singapore, Jerusalem, Stockholm, Essen, Boston, Toronto and Warsaw in Poland. In 2014 she took part in the performance "Friktioner" in Uppsala, Sweden, and later that year she returned to Sweden for an exhibition in Malmö.
In the 29-minute-long film Phenomenology of Truth, she portrays a Japanese artist who one day gets to meet a Warsaw philosopher- whom she has admired at a distance.
Sakiko Yamaoka