62. Oishi Sayaka 大石早矢香

 Sayaka Oishi was born in Kyoto in 1980 and studied ceramics at Kyoto City University of Arts. Because Sayaka Oishi grew up in a rural area, nature has always played an important role in her life, and in particular, she is intrigued by the rules and laws found in it. Therein lies perfect beauty, is her contention. The beauty, for example, of fractals or of symmetry or the beauty of the Fibonacci sequence. From plants to galaxies, in flora and fauna: the forms and structures in nature follow intriguing rules and laws, and are therefore meaningful.  Sayaka Oishi studied such rules and tries to apply them to her work. In particular, she is interested in the fundamental meaning of experience, expression and emotion and how our emotions are part of a universal, underlying codification that must be revealed through art because language is not sufficient for that purpose.  Decoration is therefore a main theme for Oishi Sayaka because decoration is an important means of conveying human emotions, even before written language. She uses her "decorations" to express complicated emotions, and does so by mixing parts of the human body, plants, animals and also inorganic material. Some parts are organic motifs while others are not. Some forms are imaginary while others are realistic. Guns, human hands, moss and plates are used interchangeably. This chaos makes some viewers uncomfortable, she says. Japan is an island empire that has imported numerous elements from other cultures and religions and transformed them into their own culture and religious consciousness. With thousands of different gods, saints, forces of nature and supernatural beings worshipped or feared, and in this polytheistic culture, bad and good, light and darkness coexist. And Oishi's work is deeply rooted in this culture.

Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and is included in collections in Japan, South Korea and the US. She has been nominated for and awarded numerous prizes. Oishi san was also a guest lecturer at Kyoto City University in 2016 and at Aichi University of Arts in 2019.