Hiraki Sawa

Hiraki Sawa made his debut with the East International Award, which is highly regarded as a gateway to success for young artists, with his work, "dwelling" (2002). The work displayed numerous model airplanes flying around in the room, while monochrome screen images projected unusual events and perspectives of reality. In "spotter", tiny people observed airplanes chasing their own shadows while assembling a range of cooking materials in the kitchen. Also in "migration", people, horses, camels, and birds conducted a silent parade in the empty house.

Later, Sawa created two-channel video works that operated simultaneously, such as "murmuring" and "out of the blue". He further developed his works to three-channel video works, like "going places sitting down", so that the artworks came to encompass the gallery entirely.

Recently, Sawa attempted to exhibit the room built for his work, "silk", and the projected image in a parallel line. The room made for the artwork was absorbed, and it became a metaphor which suggested that the video itself was a kind of 'micro-room'. Likewise in 2009, he exhibited a video artwork titled "O" which was located in a large space with a composition of three big screens, ten monitors, and five rotating speakers. The screen images faced the real room, and it was a sort of tentative attempt to embed the screen image into a structure.

Sawa's recent works explore the possibilities and effects of screen images located in real-life exhibition spaces.

Born in Ishikawa, Japan in 1977, Hiraki Sawa is currently based in London. In 2000, he completed M.F.A. of University of East London and in 2003 MFA Sculpture program at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London. Recent exhibitions include "Latent image revealed" KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Japan (2018), "Sapporo International Art Festival" Sapporo, Japan (2017), "Under the Box, Beyond the Bounds" Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2014), "Lenticular" Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Scotland (2013), "12e Biennale de Lyon: Entre-temps... brusquement, et ensuite" Lyon, France (2013), "Lineament" Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2012), "Chengdu Biennale: Pure Views" East Chengdu Music Park, Chengdu, China (2011), "The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age" Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (2010).