In this talk, Asako Shiroki will discuss her artistic practice and The wind blows in, her solo exhibition on show at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, with a curator and writer, Ellen Greig.

Originally trained in silversmithing, Shiroki moved on to working in wood. She describes this natural material as simultaneously confrontational, adaptable, and a means to explore the temporal process of bringing form to raw material. The performative act of working the wood crystallises in the exhibition space as an installation, choreographed in physical relationships, balance, and tensions between shapes. Shiroki respects the ephemeral nature of reality and how metamorphosis takes place in our environment; she reflects fragility and strength through her practice. Henceforth her works can be dismantled to lie dormant until they are ready to be re-assembled.

The wind blows in features the work A twig of interweaving passages, originally commissioned by Schmuck2 in Retschow. This was Shiroki’s first work shown in public space and signalled a new dimension to her practice. Collecting found ephemeral objects from her surroundings – pretzels, feathers, twigs – transformed in bronze, her work allows intervention from nature, but reflects it into an inverse perspective on the world. Requisitioning elements of the constructed environment, the installation develops the artist’s acute sensibility for materials and the exploration of the tension between nature and dwelling. Her work sets an equilibrium to nature, an arbitrary set of standards, recognition, histories, technique or our embedded culture with our perceptions.

About the contributors

Asako Shiroki (b. 1979, Tokyo) currently lives and works in Berlin and Tokyo. She completed her PhD in Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts and participated in the International Studio Program in Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2013-2014).

Her recent exhibitions include PLAY MUSEUM, Schmuck2, Glashagen Hof, Retschow, Germany (2021); A warm trail, M100, Odense, Denmark (2020); Your Voice, Echoed, Cultural Center of Belgrade Art Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia (2019); A room that grows buoyant, 21st DOMANI-The Art of Tomorrow, The National Art Center, Tokyo (2019); Neighborhood Seen through Art, Community Engagement Program, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2018); The Other Face of the Moon, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea(2017); The Pleasure of Love, 56th October Salon, Belgrade City Museum, Serbia (2016); Contiguous notes, Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum Berlin (2016); Expanding and condensing, Pola Museum Annex, Tokyo (2015); On the floor, Behind the window, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2014); A Time for Dreams, the 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, The Museum of Moscow, Russia (2014). She received the Cultural Centre of Belgrade Award (2016). Her catalogue On the Floor, Behind the Window was published by Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2014).

Ellen Greig is a curator and writer based in London where she is forthcoming Director of PEER gallery, London. Previously, she was Senior Curator at Chisenhale Gallery and has held curatorial positions at Focal Point Gallery, LUX Artists’ Moving Image, and Liverpool Biennial. She is a curatorial advisor for the 59th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2022), curated by Cecilia Alemani, and is a Trustee at The Old Waterworks, Westcliff-on-Sea.