Behind My Artworks

While working on various materials, such as FRP, mortar, metal, and also pottery that I encountered in Kasama, my interest in stainless steel grew. This is because of the potential of the material that although it is metal it can be shaped by humans' hands and shine like a jewel.

I'm thrilled when I find that stainless steel surface overlaps with the brilliance of the sea and waves, its transparency, the feeling of diving into the sea, and tolerance that the sea has. Perhaps this is because I was born and raised in a small fisherman town beside the sea, and the sea has always been my playground.

When I was working with mortar, I experienced an interesting feeling. In mortar modeling, we make artificial rocks and trees with the material. As mortar turns solid we apply various actions that can only be done at that timing depending on the hardness of the mortar. Perhaps because, mortar is made up of particles similar to rocks, mortar lumps are becoming more like rocks and trees after experiencing the actions.

I realized there was a similar feeling some time after I started working with stainless steel.
Stainless steel has the potential to become like the sea.

After I started to make that connection, various expressions of stainless steel began to feel like the sea. I am seeing my sea in stainless steel.

During my art production process, stainless steel suddenly gives me instructions.

"Inflate more, here."
"Make a little dent, here."
"Next is over there. Hurry up!"

"Yes!"
"Yes!!"
"I got it!"

I make the shape that stainless steel dictates me to. I even feel that my work is controlled by stainless steel.

The problem is when stainless steel becomes silent. Its voice stops and so does my hands. I haven't found its cause nor solution to it and I am struggling each time. Even though I'm struggling, sometimes stainless steel doesn't speak to me anymore, and it happens that my art work completes this way.

I want to be able to find out and control the cause of this mysterious phenomenon. To master that, I may need to acquire the language of the stainless steel.

The production process of stainless steel mainly starts with forging. Then the rest of the processes are partially firing, molding, welding, and further molding and polishing.

98% of the production is harsh. When it gets even harder, I feel like a frog thrown into the Pacific Ocean.

I can finally see something like a land far beyond the horizon after I keep swimming day after day. This is when I'm entering the beginning of the final polishing process.

When stainless steel is polished at the final stage, it reflects the surrounding scenery and the original shape becomes difficult to understand.

Even though I make the shape with intentions, the more I polish, the more the shape becomes ambiguous and disappears.

It's a very contradictory action, and the frog can't always imagine the scenery beyond it. But just because it wants to see the scenery at a glance, the frog manages to reach the shore, even if it is almost drowning.

The goal should be to reach the land. But the frog gets bored soon after a while and jumps into the sea again. Where on earth is she heading? She said that she met a strange seagull in the sea the other day.

I don't know if they are swimming or drifting, but I'll stay on that frog's side.