Saya Yuka solo exhibition "Floating islands and Humps"
shimokitazawaartsFebruary 28 - March 10, 2024
1-7pm
Closed on Mon and Tue.
*Opening reception：Feb. 28, 3-7pm
*Anyone can participate in the opening reception.
Shimokitazawa Arts is pleased to announce Saya Yuka's solo exhibition "Floating Islands and Humps". Saya Yuka was born in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, in 2001. She was graduated from Kyoto University of Arts, Oil Painting Course in 2023. Her graduation work won the Excellence Award and the Shima Atsuhiko Special Award. This exhibition, which is Saya's first exhibition in the Kanto region and her first solo exhibition, will present the current state of Saya's creative works, including paintings and drawings, with a focus on new works of ceramics, which Saya is currently focusing on the most.
Artist Statement
When I was a child, I used to frequent my great-grandfather's garden, which no longer exists. My great-grandfather worked with the soil and grew plants. There were rules in my great-grandfather's garden, but I was too young to understand them all. However, I longed for my great-grandfather who took care of the plants and the garden.
The awareness of the edges of ceramic plates and paintings and the enclosure of the garden. In both cases, a range is determined, and things are placed and arranged within that determined range. It's like creating a garden, and I think the same mindset applies to painting.
The garden that only exists in my memory gradually grows and changes.
In the variable garden, I set up an enclosure like a small flower bed. Perhaps these are paintings and reliefs, but they may have been combined to create a garden.
I believe that my small works are part of a large garden and are connected by an invisible yard.
This exhibition features three-dimensional objects that I have been working on recently. At first, I created the object as a tree for the garden. However, as the shape became clearer, I began to feel that it was not continuous. The ceramic panels I have made so far are in different locations, but the motif is the same: the garden. However, I noticed that the tree-shaped structure was not on the same ground as the garden.
It seemed like an island.
“Floating Islands and Humps” is the title of the garden relief work I have been working on and the three-dimensional objects that are independent of the garden ground.
While I create gardens with a variety of considerations, one of the things I am most conscious of is the ground. I feel that the earth, which has great power, is both an object of respect and fear for me.
I was watching my great-grandfather tinker with the soil, and I was working with soil in a place (the earth) that was somewhat isolated from the earth by the unit of the garden. When it was produced, it was a relief, in other words, the place (ceramic plate) was surrounded and protected.
However, in three-dimensional works, objects are created directly rather than indirectly, as in gardens and reliefs. That's a very different story than before. Clay (potter's clay) became a thing without going through virtual ground. It was a big change for me, who used to handle soil carefully. It's like something is born directly from the soil.
When I came up with this title, I thought it was a story about a hump that is connected to the land and a floating island that is far from land. I thought it was a three-dimensional structure that was independent from the garden and the garden.
However, it may be the three-dimensional forms that are able to grow more directly on the earth. It may be the garden that is creating an ecosystem that is suddenly isolated from the earth.
In this exhibition, I will talk about creating my own enclosures and free-standing three-dimensional objects from the ground, and about land that is separated from the ground.
Saya Yuka
Born in Ibaraki pref., Japan, 2001
2023 BFA, Kyoto University of the Arts, oil painting, Kyoto
Excellence Award and Shima Atsuhiko Special Award at the Kyoto University of the Arts Graduation Exhibition.
favorite artists：Rut Bryk
favorite animation：Finn Family Moomintroll
Exhibition
2023 "RC Pottery Market" RC HOTEL Kyoto Yasakamae Site, Kyoto
2022 "Spring new life support festival" Mansion Midori, Osaka
2021 "Exotic enclosure with wormhole" Alternative Space yuge, Kyoto
