Saki Sato
Artist and web developer Saki Sato explores the concept of the self, the void, the body, and new realms of the imagination, expanding digital and physical boundaries and letting the viewer play into her visions.
Saki Sato (b. 1987) was raised in Long Island, New York. She attended the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City, and has lived and worked in the area since. She has screened her videos internationally at the Shanghai Biennial (China), Ogura Gallery (Japan), Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (Germany), Trailer Gallery (Sweden), and several venues in the New York area, including I-20 Gallery and Anthology Film Archives. Her sculptures have appeared nationally at The Wassaic Project(Wassaic, NY), Sweet Pass Sculpture Park (Dallas, TX), and Pilot+Projects (Philadelphia, PA). She has participated in residencies at The Wassaic Project, ChaNorth (Pine Plains, NY), and CCA Kitakyushu (Japan). A born multi-hyphenate of Japanese and American descent, she also works by day as a web developer and plays by night as a guitarist in the band Hard Nips.
Figure 3: The Blue Barber It's gonna be a long night, Blue Curaçao, Barbicide & hair-cutting scissors, served in a sterile, tall glass
Sato recently held a solo show titled “No Body” with ChaShaMa in which she explored alternate or absent human forms through varying perspective in ceramic sculpture and digital form.
From the Press Release: “A body is the medium through which we experience reality– but what is our concept of self in a void? Sato examines how the lack of a body, or an entirely different body, can be an asset, freeing the viewer to engage from another perspective besides their own. Sato’s works explore the realms of the imagination as she embodies the consciousness of a wine cork or a fly, creates cocktails and trading cards that exist in a purely aesthetic dimension, and re-invents a popular children’s character by placing its face onto new, foreign forms.
Born from a first-generation Japanese father and a white American mother, Sato has navigated her entire existence between two cultures. Shifting between identities and expectations became natural to her, and while this presented its own difficulties, it also gave her a deep appreciation and respect for many different beings, beliefs and cultures. In the theater of the mind, no body is necessary.”
Flower Trading Cards, Casino-grade playing cards, 2.5″ wide by 3.5″ tall, 2021
Capitol Pleasures