Kento Saisho

Working primarily with steel, I create objects, vessels, and contemporary artifacts. My work is driven by explorations in mark-making and I employ processes that reflect and embody the immediacy of drawing. In my studio, I harness and push steel’s elasticity and capacity for transformation: I coil, stack and join together steel rods as if they were clay, or layer, shape and collage sheet steel as if it were paper. Utilizing these experimental and haphazard methods of steel-working in addition to the more conventional craft processes of forging and fabrication, I alter metal into expressive surfaces, lines, and volumes that become more similar to rock formations, calligraphic lines, or glazed ceramic than industrial steel.

 

I am inspired by objects from antiquity: primal and sacred objects from the past, fragments that we project humanity and meaning onto. In my work, I am interested in how a material can reflect and reveal its history. While in my studio, I often feel like I am excavating, scavenging or digging until I unearth the right surface, line, or form. I want to expand the language of the contemporary vessel and explore the potential for new material expressions in steel.