[Solo Exhibition] Sakiko Sugimura "Imono Exhibition -to live / to speak / to melt-" @JINEN Gallery

Sakiko Sugimura

Sakiko Sugimura is an artist who works mainly in cast metal. This time I was fortunate enough to visit her for the very first time.

Profile

Sakiko Sugimura
1988 Born in Aichi Prefecture
2012 Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Crafts, majoring in Metal Casting
2014 Completed the master’s program in Metal Casting, Graduate School of Fine Arts, at the same university
Present: Works as a research assistant in the same laboratory
[Solo Exhibitions]
2013 Filling Words and Forms -Castings, Photographs, and Wire- (@Sainome/Osu, Aichi)
2015 Sakiko Sugimura Imono Exhibition -Melting Words, Softly, Feelings- (@JINEN Gallery/Nihonbashi, Tokyo)
[Group Exhibitions]
2014 The Power of Expression: Tokyo University of the Arts Selection (@Hiunkaku, Tamamo Park/Kagawa)
2016 Tokyo 1.0 Group show (@galerie biesenbach/Cologne, Germany)
2017 Exhibition Sugimura｜Yamanobe (@galerie biesenbach/Cologne, Germany)
[Art Fairs]
2014 THE ART FAIR+ULTRA (@Spiral Garden/Aoyama, Tokyo)
2017 EXPO contemporary 2017 (@The Reef/Los Angeles, USA)

Works

Many of the works were relatively small, and quite a few were priced at under 20,000 yen. Even so, the prices were apparently raised compared to her previous solo exhibition.

I asked the gallerist about the production process, and it’s a very unusual method.

She shapes the form in wax and takes a mold, hardens plaster around it, burns away the wax to leave only the mold, then pours in metal; once it sets, the piece is taken out of the mold — that’s the sequence.

Because the mold is broken each time, the same mold can only be used once. In other words, “every piece is one of a kind”! I find myself emotionally drawn to that kind of transience, too.