Sayuri Ikake
Solo Exhibition
Sayuri Ikake was born on 4 November 1990 in Osaka, Japan.
Advised by her family and friends who detected her artistic capabilities at an early stage, Sayuri applied for the prestigious Kobe Design and Art University cursus in 2009. She picked the crafts option during her first year of the undergraduate program and started working with various materials such as glass, metal, clay and wood; each attached to specific and often ancient crafting techniques.
Sayuri rapidly developed a particular interest for the pottery course during which she learned several traditional Japanese techniques. She particularly enjoyed practicing the potter’s wheel, named rokuro in Japan, for long hours day after day. She became passionate about the translation of mental conceptualization into concrete objects using such traditional and accomplished methods, perfected by a long lineage of craftsmen over the centuries.
Sayuri dedicated her next three years of university to the ceramic program and ended her cursus with an additional post-graduate year for which she chose “glaze techniques” as a research theme. She could then test mixed formulas of natural clay, water, organic material and glazes to develop and master her own technique over time.
After having attended the Penland School of Crafts summer course in North Carolina, USA, she decided to settle at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in the Kyoto area. It is there that Sayuri began to explore new creation paths: “I wanted to make my work more remarkable so I started to work in three dimensions using rokuro techniques to separately create and then combine the different parts of one artwork.”
Sayuri explains her artistic approach as being a combination of ancient art representing nature as such and her willingness to create a shape for the shape itself. “The colour is beautiful for its colour”, says Sayuri when asked about it. The elaborated inclusion of pigments inside the clay magnifies its impact and Japanese paper is added to the clay mix, helping to stabilize and strengthen the material.
Movement is essential to Sayuri’s work, representing the breathing of the shape, its connection to reality. As essential as memory, emotion and human senses. “If you succeed in transferring those into artwork, the purpose is met.”
