Sayaka Abe

opening 10 September 2011, 16 - 18u
expositie van 10 09 2011 - 29 10 2011

C3 Gallery proudly announces the first major soloshow of Sayaka Abe in The Netherlands. During the month of August Abe will work on a new installation in the gallery space, which opens on September 10th.

Sayaka Abe’s work starts with a question about people who she has encountered. She examines different stories like a painful situation somewhere in someone’s life; someone being lonely by growing old; or someone losing its senses by city life. Stories that unfold or become uncovered through Abe’s own experiences and the communication that she shares with people around her. She transforms these experiences into 3D drawings and intimate spaces. She uses life-sized drawings in order to provide people, herself included, a way to reflect on themselves through the works.

Through five years of living and studying in The Netherlands Abe learned that drawing became the way of expressing herself. She discovered that within Japanese culture communication has more often a visual and nonverbal form than a linguistic one as in Europe. Due to this drawing has become an important form of communication for Abe, originated from her own background.

Living here she is motivated by the contrasts between Japan and the Netherlands and therefore she would like to explore this crossing of both cultures more in detail. Another important aspect of her work is the ability to invite visitors into the work to explore what kind of tangible experience it can bring. Whether by way of presentation, space, situation, sound, lighting or material Abe would like to leave space for the visitor to reflect upon themselves.

Recently Abe is working in Holland, Japan and China. Her works are included in the art collection of NOG-SNS Reaal Art Foundation and exhibited at, amongst others, Zuiderdzee Museum and Kunstvereniging Diepenheim.