Always eager to discover and share the work of highly skilled Japanese artists, we recently fell in love with the realistic ceramic sculptures of Koji Kasatani. Following the tradition of creatives whose practice relies on incredible craftsmanship, Koji continuously challenges his skills and material by re-creating everything from old tires, rusted iron pipes, raw garbage, worn-out shoes, smashed cans, used books, cardboard boxes, food, to an ongoing series of banana-inspired sculptures.
Focused on re-creating real objects ever since he graduated from the Accademia d'Arte in Florence back in 2007, it was a love for this classic, natural, and lasting material that kept pushing Koji to experiment with new motifs and surfaces. Intrigued by the slight changes, glitches in the final ceramic appearance of everyday objects, his sculptures turn common items into something new and interesting. When asked if there are objects that might be too challenging to recreate Koji told us "My concerns are about the limitations of size, handling and display methods of ceramics. I have broken pieces during exhibitions many times."
Back in 2014, he started working on his first banana-inspired pieces, an ongoing series that he was recently presenting at a couple of group shows and art fairs in Japan. After experimenting with their natural appearance and playing with their size, shape, and flexibility, or simply using them as the building material for larger works, it was the idea of using the peel as human limbs characters that opened a whole new sphere of figurative surreal series of humorous yet poetic works. Along with those, Koji is now working on flat surface pieces and solid sculptures made from resin along with ceramics. His future plans include exploring other mediums in order to create large items that could completely fill an exhibit hall creating an immersive installation that is a piece in itself. —Sasha Bogojev
