IBASHO is excited to announce two solo exhibitions of two female Japanese artists who both happen to live in the United Kingdom.

‘Undercurrents’ by SAYAKO SUGAWARA

Sayako Sugawara is a London based artist working with photography, moving image and installation. Her work explores notions of memory and imagination through a poetic approach to stillness and movement.

Using photographic processes, drawings and actions in space, she strives to bring the past and the present together, creating new narratives with the objects and spaces encountered whilst questioning the very nature of memory. The practical process of making is very important in her practice, whether using the darkroom, drawing, or in action, all whilst playing with the scale of the space and the materials. This leads and informs the majority of the thinking process.

Sugawara’s exhibition is titled ‘Undercurrents’ as physical water flows are a constant theme, but it is also related to psychological/emotional undercurrents. The works from different series which will be in the show, are all tied to the tributaries of the Thames. The sources are mostly visible but others flow underground. For Sugawara’s newest works in the exhibition, the English waterways built and used in the industrial revolution, were a strong influence on the development of the artworks.

‘Absentee’ by SAYURI ICHIDA

Sayuri Ichida is a young photographic artist based in Margate whose work has come to fruition during the Covid-pandemic. The series ‘Absentee’ & ‘E3 2JH’ that will be exhibited at IBASHO were created during the lockdowns.

In ‘Absentee’ Ichida focuses on the temporality of our existence. This work evokes a sense of detachment centred around her own body. The limitations on social contact caused by the global pandemic brought her back closer to the trauma she experienced in her late teens with her mother’s death; fear of losing connection. This series responds to her emotional difficulties, such as the uncertainty and anxiety she went through during the Covid-crisis. Solitude reminds us of our own mortality and fragility. A visceral recognition surfaces at times, reminding us of the transience of life.

IBASHO will also exhibit Ichida’s newest works, a series of still lives called ‘E3 2JH’, another lockdown project finished in 2021. This series is a study in constructive form within a limited domestic space. It explores the capacity to control lines and forms employing gravitational tension. The postal code employed for the title – which also indicates the area where her photoshoot took place – is located in the heart of the ever-changing neighbourhood of Hackney Wick in London and was previously heavily industrial. All the objects and building construction debris depicted in the series were collected on the streets near her studio. Photography is a reproduction of reality, and this work is Ichida’s performative reproduction of debris left behind.

Both artists will be present during the vernissage on Saturday 24 September.

Artists: Sayako Sugawara, Sayuri Ichida