During the last months our workshop, project room and gallery has been filled with new experiments by Rui Sasaki (b. 1984, jp) who has used her time as an artist in residence in S12 to investigate the relationship between the weather – with emphasis on rain, and herself.
Sasaki is a conceptual artist who mainly works with transparent materials such as glass and ice. She is using glass as a medium for preservation and documentation of different kind of ”weather residues”, and is seeking, among other, ways to conserve, visualize and move sunlight from one place to another. This has led her to investigate self-illuminating glass that absorbs UV light such as sunshine and emits it in the dark without any light resources.
In the exhibition, PLUVIOPHILE (a lover of rain), an installation of self-illuminating glass is shown, while the theme of rain is central. Sasaki is interested in people’s relationship to the rain and how this weather phenomena influences us physically, mentally and culturally. Sasaki has captured, collected and frozen the Bergen rain in hot casted glass sculptures. In her own unique way, she has moved the weather indoors, made it more manageable and partially eliminated its ephemeral sides. The weather has become something physical she can study, shape and control.
Rui Sasakis main investigation is cast glass in a space, but she also works with the body, performance, video and photography. Sasaki graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in June 2010 with a Master of Fine Arts in Glass. She has taught glass and contemporary art at Rhode Island School of Design, Worcester State University in the US, and Kyoto University of Art and Design in Japan. She has been invited to many Artist in Residence programs around the world, and her work has been exhibited in Denmark, Italy, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Australia, Korea, Japan, and a number of places in the US. Her work is part of the permanent collections at the Museum of American Glass (US), Glasmuseet Ebeltoft (DK), the Ernsting Stiftung (DE), the city of Lommel (BE) and many private collections. Sasaki is living and working in Toyama, Japan.
This is the second time S12 is showing work by Rui Sasaki. The first time was in 2013 as part of the group exhibition Young & Loving!
Vernissage May 20 at 7 pm.
