Sayaka
My body of work consists of stylized and abstract pieces exploring colors, shapes and forms. Initially, my work focused on portraying the cityscape and landscape in a representational manner that gradually became more abstract as I adjusted my own photos to simplify the images. This led me to create purely abstract pieces using ideas of illusion featuring geometric patterns of curves based on nature and Japanese traditional motifs. My exhibition includes paintings, reliefs, ceramic tiles and sculptures. My vision for presenting this body of work was for others to question how our eyes are easily manipulated with illusions and how shapes, lines and colors create movement.
I used a range of materials and techniques to experiment with optical illusions. I found that clay was one of the best materials to convey my concept, as it created the illusion of receding and protruding easily. So, the majority of my work is three-dimensional or made in relief. The colors also create an illusion of depth or protrusion such as in 2D Landscape or Ceramic Tiles. Ceramic Tiles was inspired by Victor Vasarely who was a pioneer of Optical Art using illusion techniques with how he places colors and shapes.
My Skyscape series was inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe’s landscape paintings. She employed unique techniques for blending colors. The simple forms of landscape became mechanical patterns in my pieces, but the colors are warm. Skyscape - remake using a similar composition to Skyscape was made from wood panels in relief painted in more natural colors.
My exhibition is laid out on four display panels. If the audience enters from the right, they look at Skyscape; if they enter from the left, they look at Geometric hexagons. Skyscape series are placed next to each other so the audience can see the link between them. The brightly coloured pieces are dispersed across my exhibition and the monochrome pieces (2D cityscape, My Ceramic Leaves and Paris Cityscape) are placed in the middle. Illusion Tiles is placed at a low level so that the audience can look at the work from above and walk around it. Whereas other 3D sculptures are placed at a higher eye level, so the audience can get closer to them. Overall the viewer's eye oscillates between 2D and 3D pieces reinforcing a sense of movement and optical illusions to my show.
Illusion Tiles (March 2021)
Ceramic, manganese oxide and colored glaze
66 x 90 cm
Illusion Tiles is an op art ceramic tile panel. The movement and the illusion is created by the shapes and the colours of the artwork. I was influenced by Duo-2, an optical artwork by Victor Vasarely that represents an illusion of receding and protruding. In Illusion Tiles, I am using a combination of hexagonal and trapezoidal shapes in order to build triangles of complementary colors, using purple and blue, and a clear yellowy glaze, expressing illusion in a similar way to Duo-2.
My ceramic leaves (December 2020)
Ceramic and oxides
29 x 11 x 11 cm
My ceramic leaves are two three-dimensional leaves. These artworks are made from the same mold, so their shapes are mostly the same. By making the same shapes, these can represent the sense of unity. Tina Vlassopulos, whose artworks have smooth curves, influenced the idea of my artwork. Her ceramic pieces have beautiful curves and it adds to the beauty of the form. Curves are important in my piece as they represent the reality of leaves in an abstract manner.
Geometric hexagons (June 2021)
PVC board, colour papers and Japanese origami
54 x 51 x 1cm
Geometric hexagons has many hexagons of different colors. This artwork makes an illusion by creating the protruding and receding reliefs. The hexagon motifs are further repeated in relief and layout creating a further sense of illusion and movement. Geometric hexagons was influenced by Josef Albers’s work, especially from Homage to the Square. The connection between these two artworks is in the use of a repeating and superimposed geometric shape.
Skyscape (October 2021)
Acrylic on canvas
131 x 160 cm
Skyscape is based on my own photograph of a landscape and sunset in Japan. The painting uses simplified shapes and colours to abstract the natural gradations seen in the real landscape. The painting is inspired by Landschaft bei Black Mesa by Georgia O'Keeffe with similar techniques of blending of colours and simplified shapes. The idea of Skyscape is to create an illusion of interlocking organic shapes that become abstract.
Skyscape - remake (March 2022)
Acrylic paint and wood
42 x 60 x 4 cm
Skyscape - remake represents abstracted forms. The composition originated from my previous Skyscape painting based on my photo of landscape in Japan, but is further abstracted and is created in relief using wooden panels. This work was influenced by Landschaft bei Black Mesa by Georgia O'Keeffe and Jean Arp’s reliefs. The artist’s works are quite simple and abstract, so this work could use similar techniques. The shapes are also reminiscent of My ceramic leaves.
2D Cityscape (December 2021)
Ceramic and glaze
33 x 50 x 7 cm
2D Cityscape is a work that represents a city, but the structures are simplified, and the forms create a type of illusion. I put colours only on one side for each cube to add to the effect of illusion and depth. 2D Cityscape references the Holocaust memorial in Berlin which is is constructed with different sizes of concrete blocks. 2D Cityscape and the Holocaust memorial use similar visual forms which is the aggregate of the cubes.
