YOSHITOMO SAITO : WOVEN

January 11–March 2, 2019 @ William Havu Gallery

OPENING RECEPTION : FRIDAY, JANUARY 11TH 6-9 PM
ARTIST TALK WITH YOSHITOMO SAITO : SATURDAY, JANUARY 12TH 12:00 PM
1040 Cherokee St Denver
www.williamhavugallery.com

“When I create weaving type pieces, I work like a nestmaking bird. I start from a small section and expand the form larger by interlacing and interlocking the lines little by little. But unlike birds, I really don’t know how I finish the work. I let my construction grow, ending it with some feeling of unexpected surprises.

While welding, I don’t talk or think, but get absorbed in the task right in front of my eyes. It is technically demanding and physically uncomfortable because of safety gear I must wear all the time. It’s clumsy, dirty work. So at the end of each day, particularly during the hot summer I become like a smoked fish in an oven. By saying that, I may want to imply what’s woven into each piece is not just metal sticks and other natural forms cast in bronze, but invisible fibers made out of my physical psychological experiences and a string of my sculptural imaginations.

My creative impulse includes a compositional preference of basketry format with its dichotomy of hollow and solid. It might also suggest the rustic poetry of Japanese folk art such as bamboo basketries used for their traditional fishery and agricultural activities. The material bronze responds well with this line of earthy connotations.

To create these artifacts with a sort of automatic weaving technique enables me to conjure my interest in nature’s biomorphic abstraction into the work as well, and it has become one of the reoccurring approaches from the early days. Each sculpture describes something amicably familiar, but totally remote at once. The mystery of such discrepancy is a product of my dual-linguistic, culturally intertwined brain. I need to craft these enigmatic artifacts in order to seek some healthy outlet for my otherwise entangled, psychological makeup. The process of weaving is a metaphorical experience of myself being woven and the results are uniquely constructed salvations to my awareness.” —YOSHITOMO SAITO