The public entry exhibition “MIMOCA EYE” began in 2022 as a venue for young artists to showcase their unique talents. We are pleased to present a solo exhibition of Akane Saijo (1989-), grand-prize winner in the 1st “MIMOCA EYE” exhibition.
Saijo creates organically shaped clay sculptures, using them to produce moments when viewers grow viscerally aware of their own and other people’s bodies. Struck by how pottery’s hollows resemble the hollow spaces in the human body, she in recent years has sought to extend her body by connecting it with her works. This she does by sculpting shapes suggestive of the body and its organs and holding performances of blowing breath and sound into their hollows. Hoping to examine more deeply the boundary between artwork and body, this exhibition will additionally feature glass works produced through a process of blowing air into their interior.
Making ceramics means touching the clay with hands, shaping it with hand movements, and leaving hand marks on its surface. Hence, Saijo views ceramics as a practice of being viscerally aware of one’s body and enabling communication between oneself and the world. In performances, she has newly introduced the act of transport to explore the kinds of communication possible between the artwork and the body, between the interacting bodies of people lifting and carrying, and their bodies and the physical surroundings.