Junko Sugimoto | BIOGRAPHY

CURRICULUM VITAEI •IIARTIST STATEMENT

Artist Statement My work deals with my memory and recreates nature with everyday materials in an interior space. I begin by choose particular place from my daily life. Without taking photograph is helpful to build up my imagination that is fundamental part of my perspective when I create art. My hometown “katano” where is northeast part of Osaka, Japan, has been completely changed from country village to urban city when I grew up. A railroad company built a new station in my town and then started destroying nature to construct new buildings. After the 10 years, mountain, rice field, river, and woods are disappeared, there is only concrete buildings exist. I have many picture of old town they show what looked like, it is not available to describe what looked like the surroundings or atmosphere. Through my experience, I devoted to create atmosphere of particular space into my art. Showing detail is not important for my art, vague atmosphere where I spent time, are essential element. I choose an everyday material because it represents our urban life. For example, when shapes of leaves inspire me, the form is emphasized in my memory and as a same time other elements like a color or smell or environment reduce from my memory. Depends on my feeling or season or weather or other reasons, my perspective is different to focus on small detail or pleasant environments. Nature creates art with their natural materials in the nature world. I create art with artificial elements, everyday materials, in an urban space. I compete with nature to create art. Reputation is one of the most important elements of nature to engage me. I make Nature always inspired me I am inspired by nature and always think why I begin by research particular spot during my life devoted my self to make a copy of nature with everyday materials such as yarn, paper, q-tips and etc… Each project, I use only a material and repeat simple shape like column, sphere over and over again. Reputation in nature is one of the most important elements to engage me. For example, sound of wave is coming and going, almost same shaped leaves make whole shape of a tree. Recent my installation “Trail in Winterthur” (Winterthur is a town in Switzerland where I lived for my residency) “ Hudson river” represent particular environment into galleries. I choose an inkjet printed-paper tube as a material. Same shaped tubes have different colors, which are from the places. My working process is pick the place, memories the place, back to studio without picture, close my eyes and capture it, and get the vague image. My memory is not clear when I back to studio. It seems like not clear printing (relate to my background??) without eye glass? Image of dots painting became tube?? My recent work “Hudson River” is from my imagination what it is like a view from under the water.

Artist Statement

My work deals with my memory and recreates nature with everyday materials in an interior space. I begin by choose particular place from my daily life. Without taking photograph is helpful to build up my imagination that is fundamental part of my perspective when I create art. My hometown “katano” where is northeast part of Osaka, Japan, has been completely changed from country village to urban city when I grew up. A railroad company built a new station in my town and then started destroying nature to construct new buildings. After the 10 years, mountain, rice field, river, and woods are disappeared, there is only concrete buildings exist. I have many picture of old town they show what looked like, it is not available to describe what looked like the surroundings or atmosphere. Through my experience, I devoted to create atmosphere of particular space into my art. Showing detail is not important for my art, vague atmosphere where I spent time, are essential element. I choose an everyday material because it represents our urban life.

For example, when shapes of leaves inspire me, the form is emphasized in my memory and as a same time other elements like a color or smell or environment reduce from my memory. Depends on my feeling or season or weather or other reasons, my perspective is different to focus on small detail or pleasant environments. Nature creates art with their natural materials in the nature world. I create art with artificial elements, everyday materials, in an urban space.

I compete with nature to create art. Reputation is one of the most important elements of nature to engage me. I make Nature always inspired me I am inspired by nature and always think why I begin by research particular spot during my life devoted my self to make a copy of nature with everyday materials such as yarn, paper, q-tips and etc… Each project, I use only a material and repeat simple shape like column, sphere over and over again. Reputation in nature is one of the most important elements to engage me. For example, sound of wave is coming and going, almost same shaped leaves make whole shape of a tree. Recent my installation “Trail in Winterthur” (Winterthur is a town in Switzerland where I lived for my residency) “ Hudson river” represent particular environment into galleries. I choose an inkjet printed-paper tube as a material. Same shaped tubes have different colors, which are from the places.

My working process is pick the place, memories the place, back to studio without picture, close my eyes and capture it, and get the vague image. My memory is not clear when I back to studio. It seems like not clear printing (relate to my background??) without eye glass? Image of dots painting became tube??

My recent work “Hudson River” is from my imagination what it is like a view from under the water.

OJ U N K OO S U G I M O T O