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.

Hiraki Sawa (b. 1977, Ishikawa, Japan) is currently based between London and Kanazawa, Japan. Recent solo exhibitions include “flown”, Parafin, London, United Kingdom (2022), “Hiraki Sawa x ARTRO”, ARTRO, Kyoto, Japan (2022), “ABSENT”, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME, USA (2021), “absent /home”, Ota Fine Arts, Singapore (2021), “ /home”, Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo (2021), “MEMORIA PARALELA”, University Museum of Navarra, Spain (2019), "Latent image revealed", KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Kanagawa, Japan (2018), “Under the Box, Beyond the Bounds”, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2014). He has also participated in many major group exhibitions and international art festivals such as “TAGUKORE: Dunno A Thing About Art (But I Like It)”, Kadokawa Culture Museum, Saitama, Japan (2023), “ART Oku-Noto 2022 秋”, Ishikawa, Japan (2022), “Journey and Imagination – Connecting to the Stories of Others”, TOKYO METROPOLITAN TEIEN ART MUSEUM, Tokyo, Japan (2022), “ REBORN ART FESTIVAL 2021 – 22 [Second Term]”, Ishinomaki City and Oshika Peninsula, Miyagi, Japan (2022), “100% Illusion”, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2022), “THE POETIC REALM”, Yu-hsiu Museum of Art, Nantou-County, Taiwan (2021), “Overlapping Circles: 5 Artists Collaborate with the Collection”, Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan (2020), “Culture City of East Asia 2018 Kanazawa - Altering Home”, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan (2018), "12e Biennale de Lyon: Entre-temps... brusquement, et ensuite" Lyon, France (2013).