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Yukiko Sugiyama

ARTIST STATEMENT
I was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1985, and graduated Master of Fine Arts from sculpture course (Kishio Suga Seminar) in Kanazawa College of Art in 2011. I am recently based in Kyoto and Los Angeles, and represents my artworks which are photography.

​​I started my using camera when I had been building my sculpting career in 2017. I consider taking images similar to creating sculptures.

​However, although sculpting generally happens inside a studio, whereas photographing can be done anywhere, especially outdoors. It's with this in mind, that I choose my subjects in difficult to reach areas. It is important to me to go on to these "field works" and bring such faraway subjects closer to the viewer.


My most iconic art works, I have been working on a photographs + installation project since 2017, titled "CRASH".

​"CRASH" series does not refer to incidents or accidents, instead it represents the mutual relationship between nature and artifacts left behind by humans. These artifacts are represent the culmination of technologies, abandoned to natural environments.

​These machines that have been thrown away after being judged not valuable anymore by people, could only surrender themselves to the environment.

​Despite this dystopian world, similar to a sci-fi novel, this afterworld, provides a glimpse to a truth rarely seen. By discovering these artifacts, literally "foreign objects" in the natural world, and usually found in very remote locations, I try to photograph them similar to human faces or bodies, appealing to the viewer's humanity. Because they are Non-Human.

In my photographic process, I use infrared cameras and drone. Digital cameras can visualize some subjects that human eyes can not see or interpret differently. I use the infrared camera to separate and visualize abandoned machines as "artificial objects" and "natural objects" such as plants and trees. ⁠​

 

Specifically, using an infrared camera, allows me to depict chlorophyll, pigments in plants' leaves, in white, which visually amplifies the gap between the artifacts and  the plant materials.  This process allows me to express my concept that stresses the contrast between "expired technologies" and their decay to the "living of plants" which surround them. 

 

Because I consider environmental field works, that are possible to be made happened by artists who can move, have to cut out the subjects, that can’t move from there by themselves, artists have the power to inform true stories from the fields to many people.

Biography:

Based in Kyoto, JAPAN and Los Angeles, USA
2011   MFA in sculpture course in Kanazawa College of Art, Ishikawa, JAPAN

1985  Born in Kyoto, JAPAN


Awards

​2020  The Independent photographer 'Visual Storytelling' competition, Award finalist, GERMANY

2018  KG+‪Award 2018 Kyotographie satellite event, Award finalist, JAPAN
        IPOTY - International Photographer of the Year, ENGLAND
2017  ARTISAN & ARTIST Photo Contest, JAPAN


Exhibitions

2020  FHASES, Solo exhibition, Galerie Kern, Zurich, SWITZERLAND

2019   MANUAL TRANSMISSIONS, Group exhibition, The Glass Box Gallery / University of California Santa Barbara,               CA, USA
             "Miss"-iles, Group exhibition, Galerie Kern, Zurich, SWITZERLAND

             KG+ Award 2018 Finalists Exhibition, Presented by SIGMA, America-Bashi Gallery, Tokyo, JAPAN


2018  CRASH, Solo Exhibition, KG+ ‪Award 2018 Kyotographie satellite event, Gallery TOMO and Junpu elementary                  school, Kyoto, JAPAN

            Group exhibition, 日本橋三越本店 Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store, Tokyo, JAPAN

2017  Avant]{Garden, Group exhibition, Arena1 Gallery, CA, USA


2016  M&V experience, Performance, Gallery TOMO, Kyoto, JAPAN

           Group exhibition, The Museum of Kyoto, Kyoto, JAPAN
2015  花鳥風月 Flower Bird Wind Moon, Group exhibition, Arena1 Gallery, CA, USA
2013  Japan&Korea Contemporary Art Exchange Exhibition, HEIS Gallery, Fukuoka, JAPAN
2012  Yukiko Sugiyama Solo Exhibition, Watanabe Fine Art Gallery, Osaka, JAPAN
        ART EDITION/11’, Group exhibition, Gallery TOMO, Kyoto, JAPAN



Art Fairs

2018  fotofever, Paris, FRANCE

        LA ART SHOW, CA, USA
2017  FABRIK EXPO, CA, USA
2016  LA ART SHOW, CA, USA
        FABRIK EXPO, CA, USA
        ART BUSAN, Busan, KOREA
2013  Art Basel satellite Hong Kong Contemporary, Hong Kong, CHINA
2011  ART EDITION/11’, Seoul, KOREA
 

Collection
2019  JAPIGOZZI Collection, ITALY and SWITZERLAND
 

Articles

​2020 Gobe Magazine, Online magazine, AUSTRALIA

2019  SEIN+SIGMA vol.8, Event report, JAPAN

        美術手帖 Bijutsutecho, Online magazine, JAPAN
2018  美術手帖 Bijutsutecho, Online magazine, JAPAN
2016  fabrik. ISSUE 29, Magazine, USA

2015  釜山日報 The Busan Ilbo, Newspaper, KOREA
2012  美術の窓5月号 Bijutsunomado, Magazine, JAPAN

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